Senioritis shouldn’t be an excuse

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Meredith Maiorana

The senior countdown in the SHS commons dwindles.

Meredith Maiorana, Editor-in-Chief

I have 26 school days left of high school until senior project. I’ve been accepted to all of my top colleges, and I’m going to graduate high school, but I’m still trying in all of my classes. I still do my homework, I still pay attention in class, and I still care about my grades. As my classmates slack off on homework and spend their commons periods playing ping pong or watching Netflix, I’m writing papers, annotating books for English or making flashcards for my government class.

I get it. If you’re committed to a college and aren’t in difficult classes senior year, it’s easy to lose the motivation to care about your high school coursework, or even come to school. However, I find the increasingly serious cases of senioritis to be somewhat disrespectful to teachers. Your teachers are still trying to teach you, and are putting in an immense amount of work to make sure you’re getting the lessons you need to be prepared for college. Not preparing for class or not showing up at all leaves a bad impression on the teachers that have gotten you to the point of being accepted to college. I know very few people agree with me, but I think seniors are obligated to do their best up until May 4. Solon High School has given us too much to blow it off second semester.

It’s not only respectful to try your best, but it is also useful to you. When you have to take an entry level physics class in college as a Gen Ed requirement, you’re going to regret blowing off the second semester of CP physics at SHS. College classes move fast, and students are expected to make sure they have a grasp on the material on their own. Paying attention in your high school classes, instead of playing on your phone when you think the teacher isn’t looking, can give you a base level of knowledge and can help you keep up with the fast pace of a typical college curriculum.

Furthermore, continuing to put effort into high school coursework creates a precedent of work ethic and academic excellence in a student that will make the transition to college much smoother. I imagine it would be nearly impossible to summon a good work ethic when you get to college in the fall after slacking off for the last half of senior year.
Seniors: even though you may have graduation fever and care more about confirming housing deposits, finding roommates and attending accepted students visits than your SHS classes, I ask you to fight the senioritis, and cherish this last month of high school classes you have left. Things are about to get harder; the real world is not like high school. You will never again be a student at SHS, you’ll never sit in math class with these same people again, and you’ll never have all your childhood friends in one place. After May 25, your time at SHS will be over forever; so don’t look back on your senior year with regret, hoping you had been more present.