Every high school student has, at least once, heard about senioritis. It’s a well-known affliction, targeting most, if not all, seniors in high school at some point throughout the year, and it’s characterized by a drop in motivation, focus, and effort. I, like probably many others, assumed that was a problem I’d only face in senior year; however, junior year is here, and it has quickly debunked that assumption. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: junioritis.
I didn’t think junioritis was an actual term, but a quick Google search has resulted in many links describing similar experiences. The main difference, as is also noted by these websites, between junior and senior burnout is the cause. Senioritis is typically caused by the feeling of security from figuring out post-high school plans, while junioritis is caused by the sheer academic pressure that is placed on the students.
Admittedly, I was well aware of junior year’s reputation as being the toughest year by far. Little sophomore me, however, decided that these people must all be lying, and that I, of course, was one of the few exceptions to this phenomenon felt by thousands (spoiler alert: I’m not), and decided taking multiple of the hardest classes I could have taken was the right course of action (spoiler alert: it was not).
Yes, this is my fault. Yes, I know I could have averted most of the problems cropping up in my life now if I had, for example, switched out AP Physics for regular physics or had taken AP Calculus AB instead of BC. Unfortunately for present me, I love and have loved a good challenge, and so I’ll be finishing what I started, hopefully with flying colors.
I wouldn’t really recommend this experience to anyone else, so for any younger students who could be reading this, here are some of the things I’ve experienced, and maybe what you could do to avoid being in this situation in the first place.
Something I quickly noticed was that missing even one day of school led to being unable to catch up, even after a week had passed. This could just be a problem due to the workload being higher during the second semester compared to the first, but I genuinely can’t catch up. For example, I have quizzes in English, computer science, and physics to make up after missing just one day. It’s been 2 weeks since, and I’ve only found the opportunity to make up one of them because my other teachers are continuing on schedule and are having their own quizzes and tests during times I could’ve made up past ones. I also missed a lesson or two, and so now it takes me even longer to complete the already rigorous work, while other people are easily finishing on time. Even now, I write this article hours before its deadline, and all I can really think about is the physics unit test I have tomorrow on a unit I don’t understand at all because I missed some notes, the calculus classwork I didn’t get the chance to finish in class, the computer science exercises due in a few days, and multiple other miscellaneous tasks left to do.
As for the solution to this problem, I don’t really have anything I can do to fix it except to keep chugging along. It’s way too late to change anything to make a meaningful difference. For anyone not in junior year yet, the solution to this problem is, as mentioned earlier, to take less rigorous classes. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t challenge yourself. Take all the hard classes you want, but I’d recommend researching what past students have had to say about the course rigor and workload before deciding what to do. Also, take into consideration things like studying for the SAT, possibly getting ahead on college applications, possible conferences/competitions, sports, clubs, or even jobs. Most importantly, do what I didn’t do, and leave yourself a bit of time for yourself, whether it be hobbies, just sleeping in, or hanging out with friends.
Long story short, junioritis is awful, so don’t make the same mistakes I did.
