Senioritis is defined as “a supposed affliction of students in their final year of high school or college, characterized by a decline in motivation or performance” according to Merriam Webster Dictionary. Monday, January 26^th, marked the beginning of the second semester of the 2014-2015 school year. For many seniors, this day marks the end of three and a half very stressful years of studying and the beginning of a time of a relief, or what many people call “senioritis”. This is due to the fact that none of their grades from now on will be released to colleges prior to accepting or denying them.

These new cases of senioritis can actually be very serious. Many seniors have stated that after the second marking period ends, which was on the 23^rd, they are stopping everything. As the weeks to the end of the first semester crept closer, seniors all around looked forward to a day where they could finally go to school without bags under their eyes and actually be fully awake for class due to the lack of homework. However when the second semester finally started, it didn’t seem like anything seniors had dreamed of. The teachers again and again preached against this so called “senioritis” and piled on the same amount of work as before.

Many second semester seniors have said that they won’t stop doing work but have lost total motivation to start anything until right before it is due. One senior said, “I will keep doing my homework, but I will care a lot less about grades”. Others have gone as far to say, “Once the second semester starts, I’m basically not coming to school.” Conversely, there are a few students that are fighting the “symptoms” of senioritis in hopes to achieve great second semester grades as well. Although there are many different approaches of this second semester senioritis, it’s evident that all seniors can agree with Libby Johnson, who said, “I wasn’t expecting it, but senioritis hit me like a truck.”