Senioritis affecting more than just seniors

It’s more contagious than the flu. It has spread over 50 states in the United States. And it continues to ruin the grades of students of all age levels.  Yes, it’s senioritis.

Senioritis is a “condition” in which students have developed the mindset of giving up on school for the sole fact that they are almost done with the countless hours of studying and homework.  Students don’t feel the need to put in effort anymore and instead want to focus on other things like games, work, or sports.

From personal experience I can say this has hit me hard and my procrastinating skills have been perfected in the past couple months.  Obviously this is nothing new as so many seniors before me have felt this, but what if I told you it’s not just for seniors anymore?

Ben Dudley, a junior in my Calculus class, has been someone I look at and think that senioritis has spread to other grades.

When working him and talking with him over the course of this year, it is clear he does the bare minimum because of the sickness that has grasped hold of him.

“I was affected by this disease when it was the end of my sophomore year,” explained Dudley. “My effort for school had been lacking as if I was about to graduate, but little did I know I was only halfway through my high school career,”

To take place of time that should be spent doing homework, Dudley is a avid fan in Fortnite and plays it almost everyday.

“I’ve gotten really good over the past months and have accumulated a lot of wins,” said Dudley. “It’s something I’m good at which makes me prioritize it in front of school.”

That is a concrete example of how not only seniors are affected by this, but juniors as well. But where does this all stem from?

Is slacking off in our blood or is it inherited by the environment around us?  Could it have something to do with the latest up and coming technology that distract us from our school work?  Or could it be the technology itself that we get to “enhance” our learning?  Who knows?

Even some of our own freshman have been affected by this disease.  Walking past a freshman class on the way to enlighten people with my Purple Quill stories, I have noticed many games being played and also many heads down.

Now this is very concerning to me.  The future of the school relies on the freshman class to be strong leaders and setting a good example for all the following classes of Elder.

To see this disease spread to them is heartbreaking and hurts the integrity of Elder, but how do we fix it?

To fix it we need to bring back the hard-working mentality back to the freshman, sophomore, and junior classes to fix the spread of this highly contagious disease.

But we need to let the seniors continue their slacking mentality until we all get to leave and not regret ignoring homework and studying.