Junioritis

During the last stretch of weeks before graduation, Granite Bay High School seniors are often known for not completing homework, taking tests without studying, and missing class. All of these acts make up common symptoms of a disease that many 12th graders have: “senioritis”.
While senioritis is caused by an early desire to complete high school, and move onto the next phase in a student’s life, it is also affected by many other things.
“At the culmination of students’ high school career, they get to a point where they’ve gone through their applications and have plans post-high school, and they feel a need to just enjoy their last high school moments,” GBHS counselor Tiffani Gieck said.
In addition to seniors’ feelings of wanting to finish high school and the long days that go along with it, it seems that the desire to complete secondary school as quickly as possible has trickled down to the junior class, causing “junioritis”.
“I can’t wait to have summer, senior year and then finally finish high school,” GBHS junior Jennifer Ohlson said.
But even though they know that they still have a year left of high school to complete, the junior class has grown tired of school for more reasons than just how much time it takes up.
“I love my classes, like (Advanced Placement) U.S. History and psychology, but they are extremely difficult,” Ohlson said.
The difficulty of the classes is often the culprit that causes students to have junioritis. Taking classes at a higher level requires more time to complete homework, study and prepare for AP exams.
“I am always preparing for another test or exam, but it’s definitely worth it,” GBHS junior Stacey Wong said.
After seeing the senior classes of the last few years have some surprising rejections and acceptances, this year’s juniors have needed to raise the level of AP classes and extracurriculars taken to meet college expectations, which often results in kids getting burnt out.
“For me, junioritis has definitely come from my crazy schedule,” GBHS junior Grant Gunderson said. “I go to school, play lacrosse and do homework. And then the next day, I wake up tired.”
The purpose of the balancing act is to get good grades and prove to colleges that students’ are well-rounded individuals. But there are also consequences to the balancing act.
As a result of constant running around, and juggling of academics and extracurriculars, juniors have begun to feel burnt out and ready for a change.
“I cannot wait to try something different,” GBHS junior Rachel Smith said.
Rather than junioritis being a separate disease than senioritis, it seems that junioritis is the same thing, just a year early. The only difference is that the kids that have it must push through the disease for an extra year before they are able to walk across the stage, and move on with the rest of their lives.
However junior year is not the time to be having feelings of slowly lessening involvement with school and academics, Gieck said.
“Junior year is an intense year when it comes to preparing for senior plans and applications. It is a real focus year,” she said.
In order to have all of the hard work that juniors have put in pay off, it is necessary that they stay motivated to finish their last two years as best they can, and concentrate on short term tasks that will help them reach their goals for the future, she added.
After working so hard for ten years, eleventh grade can make or break a students career with AP classes and tests, SAT’s and leadership opportunities galore.
Therefore, in order to reach goals for the future, it is important that students avoid daydreaming about days after walking the stage at graduation, and remember that to get to that point, they need to do the work now, Gieck said.