Senioritis: an incurable disease or a made-up phenomena to excuse kids from schoolwork? That’s the question parents and teachers are asking as the school year comes so close to an end.

   “I honestly think I’ve had Senioritis since freshman year, so I’m pretty sure it’s an actual disease,” said Senior Billy Wright. While it may not be a real medical diagnosis, it might not seem like such a ridiculous excuse in the long run, either. Hearing the symptoms of Senioritis might help people believe the affliction is more intense than commonly regarded. According to the Verywell website, parents should look out for symptoms like poor hygiene, extreme laziness, spending all one’s time with friends, having a hard time getting up in the morning, a lackadaisical attitude about schoolwork and apathy towards the future (verywell.com). When listing off these symptoms, most students agreed they had a lot of them. “It takes me at least two cups of coffee to be a normal person at school, especially this year, so getting up and going to school has definitely been a huge struggle. This probably explains why I’ve been absent so much this year,” said Senior Samantha Dorman.

   There are a few satirical articles that address the medical legitimacy of Senioritis, including one on the Sundial Humor Magazine’s website. This article reports on a fake study that was taken and jokes about seeing kids’ brain waves light up while watching Netflix while almost no brain activity shows up during a lecture. The article stated, “It’s definitely not a disease, but there’s obviously a pattern of seniors kind of just not caring anymore [and] not coming to school or doing classwork, but I think it’s more about how they want to get on to the future already” (sundial.osu.edu).
   That future seems to be all seniors think about after getting accepted into college. Senior Claire Halaka said, “I’m going to Oregon State, and I’m so excited. I just want to be there already in the cold weather. Going there in a couple of months is all I really think about, so being at school most days feels pointless.” The anticipation of the freedom that lies ahead at college has most students in a different world, a world nowhere close to high school. Senior James Sud said, “We are past the point where parents or grades really seem to matter, when there is a whole future ahead of us that seems so close.” The Huffington Post points out that students spend months preparing for college, writing the application essays, getting the recommendations and studying like crazy for that exceptional SAT and ACT score,  so now that the long-awaited acceptances are finally in and students are done committing to colleges, the finish line seems very close (huffingtonpost.com).
   A lot of students say they aren’t the only ones giving up, as teachers seem to have thrown in the towel as well. “All we do at school is watch movies or sit there with no class lesson, so a lot of us see no point in coming to school, which may explain why a lot of them continue to say we’re absent due to our Senioritis,” said Senior Abby McGee. Although motivation does drain out of most students over the course of the year, teachers seem to be in the same boat and are giving students basically free periods. “When there’s nothing to miss in class, it’s easy to just not go or take a nap,” said Sud. With no purpose to attend school, both seniors and teachers face a lack of motivation. So, a strongly correlated risk factor for Senioritis may be Teacher-itis.
   Administrators may find that there is no cure, only treatment for the progressively debilitating affliction of Senioritis, which is Saturday School for unexcused absences. But as its name suggests, Senioritis is only a temporary condition. So if you’ve caught a bad case of Senioritis, remember to stay strong and value these last days in high school, as the real world is closer than it seems!