Senioritis is like folklore, a story that’s been whispered about in hallways, a warning passed down from one senior class to another. Unfortunately, senioritis isn’t a dream you can wake up from: it’s real.  

According to Dictionary.com, senioritis is “a supposed affliction of students in their final year of high school or college, characterized by a decline in motivation or performance.” Symptoms include chronic napping, only getting out of bed to party, being tired but knowingly staying up until 1 a.m. doing god knows what, making mental justifications about why school work just doesn’t need to be done, and the age-old classic line uttered almost every single day: “I just don’t care anymore.”

“I don’t want to be here anymore,” senior Dylan Shugart said. “I just want to graduate already. I used to be so excited to wake up in the morning when I was a freshman. Now all I want to do is lie in bed.”

There are vaccinations for senioritis available in a variety of forms. Some of these are: not choosing a heavy workload for your senior year; give yourself a little extra room for slacking if you can. Once the third and fourth quarter hit, your desire to sit down and study will dwindle.

“It’s like pressuring and sad because your childhood is ending faster than you can control, stacked with the stresses of everyday school life,” senior Pablo Reulas said. “It’s a fear of losing the life that you’ve been comfortable with for so long.”

Second, resist the urge to come straight home from school with your off-campus pass and just nap. Whole days will be wasted if you do this.

“I napped almost every day the last few weeks of the third quarter,” senior Taylor Macowiak said. “It was bad.”

Finally, look after for yourself. It’s hard being a senior sometimes. You’ll have a lot of people telling you what you should do after you graduate, and you’ll have to make decisions that only really you can make. It’s important to follow your own instincts. Comparison kills. Knowing yourself is more imperative than ever.

Patience, absolute focus, and large amounts of self-control will save your life. Shrugging off your deadlines (especially with college applications) is tempting, and life for the whole year is like a sleepy haze. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to participate just a little bit before the graduation fanfare begins.

So strap on your medical masks and face the disease that is senioritis; the only antibodies you have are yourself. Don’t forget to apply for college. Good luck future seniors!