As the year comes to a close, senioritis has begun to set in. The struggle of turning in work on time, waking up early all week, or even just having the patience to pay attention, is absolutely real. The thought of graduating high school occupies seniors’ minds, but this inevitable “disease” could not have a worse timing. Everything comes down to the second semester as it’s the most important semester, possibly of our entire lives so far. Therefore, I’ve compiled a few tips and tricks to help keep you motivated and on track to graduate because the last thing you want to do is drop out after 12 years of hard work and dedication. This last semester is worth struggling through, and here’s why.

Many people get caught up thinking about the abundance of reasons why not to come to school, but should spend more time focusing on why they should. Once you put yourself into that negative mindset, you’re likely to get trapped in it. The downward spiral of laziness and lack of interest isn’t just something that will disappear once you get out of highschool. The worst case scenario, dropping out, will only make things more difficult once you’re trapped in this mindset. The necessity of getting a job will be something you put off, due to your now habitual laziness. However, even if you do get through senior year by taking the lazy route, that behavior will follow you into college. The aftereffects of senioritis cause a multitude of college freshmen to drop out, being wrongly convinced that college is too much of a challenge for them. In reality, commitment is key. Even though motivation can be extremely difficult to maintain, hold onto it once you find it. That motivation will be much more helpful to you mentally in the long run. This holds true whether you plan on going onto college or not.

That final report card will be the most important report card of your entire life thus far. Slacking off and getting work turned in late can destroy your grades at the end of the year, and that does not look good to colleges. Many people falsely believe that once they’ve been accepted into a college, the final report card is no longer something to stress about. However, colleges can actually retract their decision of acceptance if they aren’t satisfied with final grades. Too many kids slack off towards the end of the year, completely oblivious to this fact.

Time management is a skill that will be important to you in your college life and life after college. Making positive and helpful habits will help you vastly in the long run, rather than making poor ones. Senioritis can be devastating to seniors, so staying motivated and focusing on the positives of these last few months are crucial. Good luck seniors!SS