May 11, 2023

It is a disease that runs rampant through American high schools. It cannot be stopped, there is no treatment and no preventing it. 

Senioritis is a condition that overtakes a large population of seniors over the course of their final year of high school. It is an ailment that causes students’ motivation and performance to decline. 

While senioritis is usually caused by stress from the approach of graduation, it is also intensified when students focus more on their life after high school than what they are responsible for in the moment.

For Copley senior Noah Keathley, Senioritis started a year early.

“My senioritis started junior year,” Keathley said. “I got sick and missed a whole month of school and I just didn’t want to come back.” 

Many students try to cope with this phenomenon by ignoring it until the end of the year, resulting in significant stress. Experts, however, suggest that the proper way to handle senioritis is for students to surround themselves with support, craft smaller and more manageable goals and hold themselves accountable. 

When it comes to coping with his senioritis, Keathley is focusing on pacing himself. 

“I’m just kind of getting through it day by day,” Keathley said. “I’m going with the flow.”

It may be helpful for students to  know about the danger of senioritis ahead of time. Students should also consider listening to advice from people who have experienced it.

“Just get through it, because at the end of the year, you’re going to be like, ‘okay that wasn’t that bad,’” Keathley said. “It’s going to seem like you don’t want to be there at all, but then [you’ll] look and [say], ‘oh high school was fun.’”

Guidance counselor Christina Hovey believes that senioritis can result from overthinking the future.

“When you are closer to the end of a project, [especially] the end of high school, you tend to get excited about the future and then focus less on the present,” Hovey said. “I think that contributes to senioritis.”

Senioritis is often mentioned in a joking manner, but it is a serious issue that affects many seniors in high school and even students in college.

“I think it can be a joke,” Hovey said. “It’s like the ‘freshman 50,’ putting on 50 pounds as a freshman in college. It’s a joke but to the people who are putting on the 50 pounds it’s not really funny.”

Guidance counselor Lauren Barkliano advises seniors to proceed in a methodical manner throughout their days and weeks.

“We only need to take it one day at a time, make sure we’re getting everything done, everything complete—we don’t have to go above and beyond,” Barkliano said. “We don’t have to be an overachiever, we just need to make it through.”

Seniors can become overwhelmed with procrastination, even when they are close to graduation. Barkliano thinks that this stems from students believing that they have done enough and feeling discouraged about sticking it out until the end of the year.

“[Students] genuinely feel like they’re done and they just can’t do it anymore,” Barkliano said. “We have to make sure we can get them, again, to cross that finish line no matter what it takes.”        

Struggling students should be aware that they are not alone. The first step in curing this  condition is to set achievable goals, stay motivated, and surround oneself with people who provide positive support. The school guidance and mental health staff is ready to help with this. 

“Finishing the race is never easy,” Barkliano said. “But if you keep going there is a reward in the end.”