Senior year isn’t over: keep pushing on
Senioritis is real. The rumors are true. I can’t exactly tell you when it began, but it has definitely hit like a brick. Even starting this year was different: right off the block entering the campus, I wanted to leave. I was not excited at all, similar to previous years, and moped about the whole day. And it got so much worse, let me tell you. To illustrate, here is a graph of my motivation and subsequently the quality of my work for this year:
I pushed through college applications, the Extended Essay and midterms, and my body has officially called it quits. I can no longer keep my eyes open or grip my pencil long enough to get past the fifth problem on my assignments. It’s gotten to the point where I have spent the past three months getting up at 3 or 4 a.m. to do all the previous night’s homework that I slept through. I used to think it was extremely rude to nap or listen to music in class (I mean, it still is), yet now I find myself constantly breaking my own etiquette rules. Sure, I napped quite often in previous years, but this year has gotten out of control. If you are reading this, I am sorry Mr. Johnson. I zoom out of of classes the second the bell rings and linger until the last minute to enter the classroom door. Over the weekends, I went out with friends, despite tests looming around the corner.
And then, Mrs. Ricafort came. Her arms and black bag were filled with exactly what I was trying to forget: AP registration sheets. I shed many an imaginary tear for myself as I received that packet and looked at the testing schedule. I had five back-to-back days of double testing along with two tests on other days. I was ready to walk out right then and there.
I thought I was done. I had heard many great things about becoming a second semester senior, and had salivated at the thought ever since I began high school. “Second semester senior year is a walk in the park! Don’t worry!” became my sole motivation to get through junior year. However, it’s not over, like I was so desperately hoping. Yes, it’s easier, but it’s really never over. AP and IB testing, scholarship essays, and the same amount of homework from the same amount of classes are still waiting to be completed. Teachers still expect the same quality of work and colleges are still awaiting your end of the year transcript.
So, if you are like me, don’t throw in the towel so soon. No matter how much your soul is crumbling into millions of pieces (not dramatized at all), you have to keep pushing until May testing. It will be worth it in the end when you are in college saving thousands of dollars because you were able to get AP and IB credit. I hope you take my advice, because I’m pretty sure my feeble attempts to get my diligence back in tact will miserably fail, and at least one of us should be succeeding.
