HTCI

I hold maybe one of the most unpopular opinions around: senioritis is a sham. While I will recognize both Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com to provide an accurate definition of the word, I still refuse to recognize it as a real “illness.”

To start, for those who don’t know what senioritis is, let me help you. As defined by Merriam-Webster, it is “an ebbing of motivation and effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences and lower grades.”

While many of my fellow seniors believe this is a real affliction, to me this is really an excuse seniors use when they really don’t care about their grades after they’ve been accepted to their college of choice or just because they have a senior mentality and believe their teachers will “let it slide.”

While I see how one can see these as valid arguments, let me show you how they aren’t.

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You might be saying, “I got accepted, not like they can kick me out.” Wrong. According to the National Association of College Admissions Counseling, 22 percent of colleges said they had revoked an admission offer in 2009. There is a reason colleges ask for end-of-year transcripts. The best advice to avoid this fate? Go to class, do homework and study for the tests. You might have gotten the “I’m in!” letter, but that doesn’t mean you’re immune from the “Sorry, we don’t want you anymore” letter.

Teachers also know while you might not want to do the stuff they assign because you are a “second-semester senior,” you still need to. College won’t be any easier because it’s college. In fact, it will most likely, and should be, harder. So slacking off now only hurts you now, but it will also hurt you in college. Plus, teachers have heard every excuse in the book, so your senioritis one won’t work any day soon, no matter what you might think.

Yes, college is going to be fun, and it is only a few months away, but that doesn’t mean you can quit now. You still have those few months left in high school and end-of-year transcripts to send so keep working hard.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Kelsey Atcheson at [email protected].