An Incurable Disease

It’s contagious, but seniors aren’t looking for the cure.

An annual epidemic has recurred once more on PV High’s campus and is increasingly infecting senior Sea Kings.

With common symptoms including urges to skip class, sleep in, and leave homework incomplete, there’s only one disease with the potential to affect the student body so greatly: senioritis.

Senioritis is something that all schools, understandably enough, discourage substantially.

The unexcused absences that occur as a result of it disrupt class time and can cause lesson plans to fall through, not to mention the fact that the school loses money when students don’t attend.

But in my opinion, senioritis is a condition that should be expected and endured by staff and administration because there’s not much that can be done to combat its effects.

Just take a minute to think about the immense stress students face throughout their senior year.

I mean, even before college applications are filled out, they face the nail-biting decision of where to apply in the first place!

Following that are the innumerable supplemental essays, endless standardized tests, and the weight of family and friends’ expectations that they must carry with them throughout the process.

And as if that isn’t enough to induce a constant state of panic, seniors are expected to maintain the grades they’ve achieved throughout their high school careers, volunteer numerous hours for charity, and perform outstandingly in their extracurriculars or for their sports teams.

Achieving the “perfect” college resume is a near impossible task, yet most students have a mindset that this “full package” is a necessity to possess.

Take senior Sereene Saab for example.

“I’ve worked so hard everyday applying to colleges and keeping up with my schoolwork that I’ve lost way too much sleep because of the neverending stress,” she said.

I can guarantee that her opinion is reflected by the majority of PV High’s senior class.

With that being said, so what if our seniors make up for those lost hours of sleep by skipping zero period every so often?

Now, as they nervously await acceptances and dread rejections from schools they’ve worked so hard to get into, don’t they deserve a bit of respite?

It isn’t often that a second-semester senior won’t catch senioritis.

I believe that there are better ways to deal with the consequences than assigning Saturday School every weekend. I mean, if a student isn’t attending regular school hours, odds are they won’t make their Saturday morning punishment a priority.

I think at this point in the year, seniors deserve their loads to be lightened.

Maybe if they were allowed some breathing room and a lesser amount of schoolwork, there would be no need for them to skip school at all.

According to senior Natalie Chung, “It’s hard not to have senioritis. You work so hard first semester that you deserve to relax before college makes life hard again.”

So from me to the entirety of the hardworking senior class, congratulations on braving the most stressful and difficult period of life so far!