REAL Almost every year around December and January, many Seniors develop an infection that is clearly inevitable. Today, we have established the term “Senioritis.” If you believe that students are just getting lazy on their own accord, you are completely wrong. If you say to yourself, “I am not going to develop this grueling habit,” then you should seriously beware. Senioritis is a disease that every single senior will develop over the course of their senior year. Most will start to have symptoms in December. Some symptoms include: going to sleep later and later, only doing half of your homework, and saying “what’s the point?” This virus can and will affect almost every single student that gets to the senior class. This disease hit me like a ton of bricks. Don’t get me wrong, I was just like the rest of you; I did not believe in “Senioritis.” However, now that I am in my senior year and accepted into college, already. “Senioritis” has begun to take its toll. I find myself taking home my homework, opening it up and just staring at it. I try to get myself to do it, but I seriously can’t. Something in my mind tells me that relaxing is a much better idea. I bet even some teachers can verify that senior students grades have decreased throughout the year. Students are going from having A’s to C’s and quite frankly they aren’t even trying to do any better. Then there also comes the matter of attendance. Have you walked through the senior hallway recently? There is barely a total of ten seniors standing in there at a time. And we all know too well that they aren’t rushing to their classes. My senioritis has gotten so bad that I don’t even want to finish this arti– IMAGINARY Sorry to break it to you guys, but despite popular opinion, Senioritis isn’t real. What has been thought to be a seemingly unavoidable disease that consumes seniors annually is simply an excuse for students to slack off. I admit that it proves extremely difficult for seniors to really focus during this particular time of the school year with so much distraction; graduation is approaching, grad parties are in need of preparation and college is right around the corner. But that isn’t an excuse for students to completely give up on school work to the point where they are failing multiple classes, which happens in our school increasingly toward the end of each year. Senior year is no harder than any other year when considered academically. If, as a senior, an individual is in danger of possibly not graduating because of a plummeting grade point average, it’s due to a lack of effort on the student’s part, not an imaginary syndrome. Distraction and laziness affect all of us as students; we’re all guilty of procrastination. But it’s up to the particular student to continue to work hard despite the busyness of senior year. There still are students who remain “undiagnosed” and who aren’t making excuses. Students need to take responsibility for and own up to their laziness. Some argue that they have already been accepted to college and see no reason to keep trying. But the students developing these bad habits will continue them through college, and unfortunately, “freshmanitis” won’t cut it then, either. Laziness won’t magically disappear June 7, with seniors becoming replenished with motivation and cured from this apparent sickness. Before a formal diagnosis can be presented, Senioritis simply is not a valid excuse to be lazy.