From the day we walk through those glass doors of the University Center, we start planning for when we graduate. Each class brings us one step closer to our departure, which is all the motivation we need to complete college, right? Any freshman and sophomore reading this article will answer that question with an enthusiastic “Yes,” but if you’re a senior, you know all too well that this is not the case.
When you become a senior, you become susceptible to a disease known as senioritis. According to Merriam-Webster, senioritis is the “ebbing of motivation and effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences and lower grades.” Unfortunately, there is no cure for senioritis, so if you have been diagnosed with this disease, here are a few tips to help you cope.
Get tested
This is a preliminary step for seniors to know if they’ve contracted the disease. The best way to find out if you have contracted senioritis is to look at your grades. After your next test, take a minute to review your results. Ask yourself if the grade you have received is the norm — better yet, ask yourself if you even care about the grade. If you answered “No,” then it’s fair to say that you have senioritis.
You need a day off
When you have senioritis, the weekends aren’t enough; you need more time to watch Netflix and “chill.” So schedule a day in the week where you can get away with doing absolutely nothing.
The only down side to scheduling a day off is that you will need to make sure that it does not interfere with school. Most students have a day when classes end early or they don’t have classes at all, so when those days pop up, milk them. If not, you’ll find yourself in class wishing you weren’t there or wishing you stayed in bed.
You can also find activities for you and your friends to do on your day off. On tripomatic.com, you can organize a day trip and create an itinerary filled with activities. Having a day off can be quite refreshing and may relieve that itch to succumb to your senioritis.
Join senioritis anonymous (SA)
Truthfully, there is no such club at NSU, but one of the best ways to cope with anything is to find people who are sympathetic to your struggle. If you hang out with people who also have senioritis, it might be easier to find some motivation to finish the semester. You guys can even get together and do schoolwork. That way, if you feel like quitting or not doing the assignment, each of you can help to motivate each other. Try meeting up off campus so that it feels less formal and you can be more relaxed. Also, you guys can join a group chat to remind each other of upcoming assignments and events — GroupMe, free and available on Apple and Android devices, is the perfect app for this. Just remember that misery loves company.
Talk to a professor or professional
By the time you start your last semester in college, you probably have a favorite professor. So go and talk to him or her so he or she can give you some pointers on how to manage your workload with senioritis. Have a heart-to-heart with this professor, and you’ll walk away from the chat feeling better about completing the semester.
By the way, there is no such thing as a senior pass; professors will not be lenient with you because you have senioritis. Moreover, if you find that your senioritis has seriously impaired your ability to complete schoolwork, try speaking to a professional. You can schedule an appointment to visit a counselor at the Henderson Student Counseling Center located in the University Park Plaza. To schedule an appointment, visit their website at hendersonbh.org.
End things with a bang
This is probably your last opportunity to make college worthwhile. Try doing everything you wanted to do in college in your last semester — fill your semester with activities and events. If you stay active in your personal life, it will be easier to stay active in your school life, especially if you attend events at or near school.
One of the reasons why senioritis has become so hard to defeat is that it makes us lazy at home, school and work. So try to be everywhere — go everywhere, and have fun. You can use meetup.com to find activities and places happening around Fort Lauderdale. The activities on the website range from upcoming walks to meeting up with the Miami Beach Photography Club or joining the Women’s Movie and Book Club.
If you’re a senior, and you’ve made it to this point of the article, maybe you’re not a lost a cause, and you can actually defeat your senioritis. For your friend who read the first couple of lines and whose eyes slowly drifted from the article to their phones or laptops, please tell them how informative this article was, and just maybe you can help them overcome this disease and be productive again.
