If you seniors think now is the time to relax on the couch, watch Netflix, and not worry about your second semester grades, think again. Many seniors would call this senioritis, but colleges may think otherwise.

“I’ve earned the privilege of having senioritis because of all the work the past 4 years of my life,” said Carolyn DiPasquale. “It has all built up to becoming a serious case of senioritis.”

Senioritis is the “disease” most seniors catch during their final year, especially when approaching their last semester of high school. Symptoms include lack of studying, skipping class, and not following dress code. The definition in the Merriam Webster dictionary is “an ebbing of motivation and effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences, and lower grades.” Seniors with this ailment believe their grades don’t matter once getting accepted into college. Even though seniors begin to feel this way, they should hold on and try just as hard until the school year ends.

Does senioritis actually exist? Mrs. Jacque Maccahren, who works in the front office, says, “When we get to the end of the school year, (seniors) are just not thinking about high school anymore. They’re thinking about what they are going to do next year. They want to sleep in. They are allergic to morning.”

One reason students slack off is because they know they already have gotten accepted into college. Students don’t realize the detrimental effects senioritis can have on their future. “If you’re trying to get into a school like Harvard, and you get accepted, and you have C’s and D’s on your transcript, they can pull your acceptance letter,” said Mr. John Chilman, high school counselor.

Teachers are some of the few who can diagnose a case of senioritis. They do not give credit to seniors for making it to their last year, but instead give credit to the students who don’t catch a case of the nasty disease. Government teacher, Mr. Ryan Watts, believes, “Senioritis isn’t a privilege, it’s a laziness.”

Being lazy does not get students anywhere, which is why they need to “cross the finish line,” as said by Mr. John Chilman. “In life, you don’t get to work part of the time.” People can’t get lazy because they are close to the end of something, so why do seniors feel they have the privilege of doing so? This attitude does not help individuals to succeed. Senioritis encourages seniors to be lazy in the future.

If you’re a senior and have not already caught a case of senioritis, stay away from it! Try hard and succeed for other reasons besides getting into the college of your dreams. Do it to impress the college you’re attending, to make it to the academic awards, or to get into a good habit for the future.