By Rithvika Nadakuditi

Senioritis is a phenomenon affecting graduating students, causing stress, anxiety, and impatience. A type of burnout that affects a student’s grades, motivation, and organization; you can see it throughout the IRHS campus. Many students struggle with senioritis and might need help or extra motivation to keep going. Managing senioritis is key to surviving; set small goals to complete rather than tackling too many things at once, which can lead to burnout.
At the beginning of the year, Erika Lu and her senior friends had started taking pictures at the start of first period during the first semester to document the year, but eventually stopped because it had become too repetitive, and they lost interest. Showing how much a picture affected people’s motivation to do something memorable. Even the simplest tasks become repetitive and draining, and losing interest in things that were meant to be fun is a common symptom of social and academic fatigue that characterizes senioritis.
Some Nighthawk seniors admit they are impatient to graduate and wrap up the year after a long, chaotic year. Atticus Grajeda said, “I’m definitely looking forward to graduation because I will have finished the largest goals in my life. However, I’m immensely scared for my future and the future in general.” With many seniors have said they began to experience senioritis in the second semester. Grajeda started experiencing senioritis around late March. “Senioritis didn’t really change my demeanor as I’ve always been slow to get my school work done, but it definitely made me gripe more about work.” Ethan Nguyen said his senioritis got significantly “worse towards the end of the year, cause that was when classes started to wrap up. I felt burnt out a lot from dual enrollment classes and AP testing, which was a bit worrying.” Like many students this year, taking challenging courses can cause stress, pressure, and worry, leading to worsening senioritis. “This can be broken down into more manageable pieces or doing things last minute”, said Nguyen.
The upperclassmen are getting to the point where everything is settling in; they are beginning to prepare themselves for graduation, and the valedictorian and salutatorian have been preparing their speeches, students are preparing for their finals, and attending their classes for their last time—something the juniors will experience soon. Not too long ago, the upperclassmen were also freshmen trying to navigate through the IRHS campus. When asked about what they would tell their freshman self to make it through these 4 years, Lu said, “Just talk to people and say yes to everything, don’t worry what people think about you, be loud, be obnoxious.” Although having fun is vital in high school, it is imperative to be academically persistent. Nguyen said, “My Freshman year started badly, which did impact my GPA and other prospects. So, I would mainly tell myself to stay focused in class all year long and keep up with grades. ” If Grajeda were to deliver a message to his freshman self, he said: “It would start the paradox; I could mess up past timelines.” “Going back into the past and changing something would guarantee that I would no longer exist. In the singular stand of time we inhabit”, with this fictional question, he claims he would not change anything about these years he’s had. They might not be perfect, yet they all had their own remembrances that became valuable building blocks to him. He acknowledges that going back to the past changes who he became, refusing to interfere with the past allows him to learn from mistakes, and move forward.