Every year, high school seniors around the country are afflicted with a terrible complex known as senioritis. Senioritis is acute complacency, apathy, and laziness toward anything related to high school. It is most common during the last quarter of the senior year, when students have been accepted into colleges and truly feel no need to continue giving effort. When I witnessed senioritis last year, I thought it was crazy that students could just stop caring. They have to care a little bit, right? Well I have senioritis, and I have found that it is indeed possible to stop caring.

It all started in February, when I was accepted at the University of Pittsburgh. I started to notice that there would be situations when I would have large amounts of homework  and sometimes just not do it. In previous years,I would stay up into the wee hours of the morning, making sure I finished every last assignment. It eventually evolved into a full-blown syndrome, to the point where I don’t even take notes in some of my classes any more.

While my grades might be falling slightly, I embrace my condition and see it as a kind of reward. I have worked to get to where I am for 12 years, and starting in the fall I will be working toward getting a career. The fourth quarter of my senior year provides me a window in which I truly can take it easy without repercussion, and I plan on taking full advantage of it.