Year after year we’ve seen seniors start to slow down and lose motivation by the end of the year, so how’s the Class of ‘24 holding up? Let’s check in with some of our seniors.

To start us off, Bugs Gudmundson told me about the change they’ve seen in their peers. They said it was something they felt they noticed changing throughout most of their high school career as if students were building up to it. They also mentioned that they know seniors who have almost entirely given up even as soon as last semester rolled in. Bugs has also been experiencing the effects of senioritis, telling me that their grades are lower than normal due to their overall lack of motivation to work or sometimes even coming to school generally. Bugs pointed fingers at the high standards some students set for themselves and their strive for “perfection”. They believe that the stress of academics, and especially by the end of junior year to be thinking about applying to college and getting ready for your future, starts to push seniors into senioritis. 

Pride says they’ve certainly noticed some changes. According to Pride, they’ve felt a shift in people’s energy about their classes in conversations. They noticed seniors have started to lose energy and motivation towards school. Pride also shared that they’ve also faced difficulties with senioritis and have been left feeling burnt out trying to juggle everything between school, work, and their social life. 

Unlike our other two seniors, Angelina Cheng has had a different experience with senioritis and how it affected her. Angelina says senioritis hasn’t had a direct effect on her academics or any of her grades, but she also is feeling a lack of motivation and notes that she typically spends longer doing her assignments. “It’s the mental process of knowing you can, and were, able to complete that same thing before just as fast, but have no desire at all to do so and feeling it’s unnecessary so it’s constantly just being put off until it’s eventually actually completed,” Angelina said. 

For some of us, the missing assignment pile is starting to stack a little high. Some seniors are struggling with this task and with the “help” of modern technology have been able to push through. This senior requested to stay anonymous and tell me honestly about how they are dealing with their schoolwork.

Let’s refer to this senior as A. A noted that they started to notice the effects of senioritis when they noticed the number of their peers using things like AI to get by in their classes and, again, a lack of motivation from their peers. This student admitted to me that they have also used AI to help get through some of their work. “It has been impactful to my grades because I have seen lower test scores and a decrease in my grades overall,” A says. Their reliance on AI has come from their need to save time. This student said a lot of their time is taken up by extracurriculars, and sometimes work, and combined with the struggle to find the desire to finish their schoolwork hasn’t been the biggest help. 

Seniors, we’re all struggling a bit in some way, shape, or form. This article is a week late. While writing about senioritis I let it get to me and pushed off writing this. We just have the rest of April and then May to go and we’re out of here, keep pushing on seniors!