Senioritis. The disease, the myth, the legend. Not-so-scientific studies have shown a major decrease in the motivation of students as they step foot into their last year of high school, and their numbers are shown to decrease as they drop (as do their GPAs) like flies. It’s something that people never really expect to happen until it, well, happens.

As a high school senior myself, the sudden release from the hectic state of junior year and into the lax environment of senior year really took a toll on the GPA that I, as do many other seniors out there, have fostered for ourselves in the last few years of high school. Alas, more-than-forgiving post-COVID policies can only go so far. Somewhere, somehow along the way, I finally realized that I needed to do something to get myself a better work ethic and put some effort into my subject grades. If I wasn’t willing to put in the effort to curate my work ethic now in my senior year, then it’ll be a bumpy path to travel on my way to post-secondary education, especially in my intended major of Electric Engineering.

Consequently, my first step in doing so was to create a schedule for myself using an app. This was a little difficult for a person who’s extremely unorganized, but the schedule did outline what tasks I needed to complete on a day-to-day basis. It was effective in holding me accountable for the assignments that I needed to get done. It wasn’t perfect, per se, as I did have many afterschool activities that I needed to somehow shoehorn into the schedule, but I wasn’t willing to give those up either.

This leads me to my next strategy, and that is to enjoy hobbies and extracurriculars. It seems counterproductive at first – the entire point of a work ethic is to reinforce the idea of “work first, play later”. There is an issue with enjoying all play and no work, but having no incentive for enjoyment in other activities provides for burnout. Burnout then leads to a bottomless pit of apathy, and apathy leads to a slog in working/studying. The enjoyment that I get out of participating in activities translates into a better mindset that makes my work/study flow more efficient.

Additionally, I also realized the importance of outside help. My experience with cranking out high nineties and hundreds in previous grades made me overconfident in my ability to consistently perform. Classes get harder each year, and I wasn’t adapting. It wasn’t sustainable in a class such as AP Calculus, and realizing that my exam was less than a month away finally opened my eyes to get help with my struggle. I’ve learned that teachers are willing to put aside extra time to help students, and it’s up to the students to take this opportunity to help themselves improve. It doesn’t seem much, but the personal help goes a long way.

Overall, my senior year has been full of self-realizations regarding the way I put in the effort to maintain a good GPA. It’s definitely a scramble sometimes to maintain or raise my GPA from the Senioritis damage, but the process has certainly been a lesson in self-reflection. It’s easy to quit, but it’s more rewarding to put in the effort. Whether it be in GPA or attendance, having the desire to improve provides for greater opportunities in the future.