More malevolent than meningitis, more prevalent than the plague, senioritis enters Ridge High School as the second marking period leaves. After sending all their first semester grades with their college applications, many seniors are beginning to reduce the amount of effort they put into their schoolwork. Many describe the “symptoms” of this trend as not studying for tests, not completing homework, and other general forms of slacking off in school.
To the frustration of many teachers and parents, many seniors believe that as long as they do not fail, they can relax with more nights of recreation and entertainment than the heavy studying and all-nighters of their junior, sophomore, and even freshmen years. In all honesty, many of them do deserve relaxation after the struggle they have undergone. During high school, the mentality is often that one’s entire focus must be on getting into a satisfactory college. The stress that comes hand-in-hand with that process rules students’ lives and raises stress levels to unimaginable heights.
Susan Kritzmacher 14’ puts it well when she states, “Once you have an idea of where you want to end up after you graduate, it’s ok to relax and ease up on stressing about small assignments.” However, she went on to say, “You still want to leave a good impression when you graduate so it’s important to continue to put your full effort into the majority of your work. You want colleges to remember why they accepted you in the first place!”
The balance between relaxation and slacking off is a particularly delicate one. After college acceptances are released, many students lose sight of their academic goals and achievements. They begin to forget that, for four years, they have held themselves to honorable and admirable standards in education. They begin to forget that what they do here at Ridge still counts.
In particular, seniors also forget that many colleges also ask for second semester grades. Even after acceptance, colleges look for the seniors who will stand out among a crowd and set personal goals for themselves in the midst of enticing opportunities for partying and wasting time.
In contrast, though, some seniors may lose this time that they have to explore areas of art, music, literature, and other worldly pursuits that they never had the time to before. Of course, if your goal is to party all night, there’s no one to stop you but yourself. But when push comes to shove, seniors may like to see what they could become if they did not spend all their time on the basic academic subjects. It remains up each senior to find his or her own balance of relaxation and commitment to personal goals, which should also be within reason. One can only hope that the seniors set some semblance of appropriate goals and shy away from being, well, too stupid.