Do You Have Senioritis?

Disclaimer: This opinion piece describes my personal experience with senioritis, senioritis affects everyone in different ways and you should talk to your doctor to see if you’re at risk.

My senioritis started the week before Semana Santa back in 10th grade. I was taking AP Physics 2 with Mr. Brandvold and he had just given us a 30+ page worksheet that would be graded when we came back. I can confidently say that it was the single worst assignment (as a product of workload and difficulty) that I have ever been asked to complete. Later that night, one of the 12th graders, gene 98, sent a bold message to the group chat:

“Have a good spring break working, I’ll be skiing. I’ve already been accepted at TEC and this homework isn’t worth enough points for me to fail.” This opened the floodgates.  Five minutes later, all the seniors, including those who needed to maintain an average to keep their place in US colleges, joined the coup.

The rest of us had no choice. Most of us wanted to apply abroad and we knew that a good grade in this class would go a long way, but the damage was done: I had been infected with senioritis. Before this pivotal event, I couldn’t even fathom the idea of not handing in a project on time, much less contemplate not finishing.

This experience was the speck of snow that would quickly become the avalanche that would bury my once great work ethic.

In 11th grade, I got to live this experience through my gene 99 friends and this only aggravated my condition. Seeing the 99’ generation talk about comidas gene, macanazos, university decisions, recommendation letters, and graduation dates only reminded me that I still had another year left.

I have loved my time at ASFM, but after 15 years in the same place, I am more than ready for a change. This became especially true after I was accepted into college and it became hard to find motivation for completing certain arduous tasks.

Every senior will tell younger students that they experienced some form of senioritis. Even the best students like Clau Elizondo couldn’t help but succumb at least partly to the mob mentality behind what some teachers call plain-old laziness.

ASFM has been home for every student new or old, and if slacking a bit will help you appreciate those last few days just a little more, then maybe senioritis isn’t that bad after all.