COVID-19 Versus Senioritis

Whether you are waiting for your high school diploma, taking those last few college credits to earn your degree, or have been retired for years, the term 'Senioritis' is nothing new. Defined by Google as a decline in motivation upon reaching the final year of school, 'Senioritis' is one of the most contagious viruses known to man. Symptoms of 'Senioritis' include chronic laziness, persistent missing assignments, and deadly apathy, with very few remedies for existing conditions. According to the Mental Apathy Treatment Hotline (MATH), global pandemics increase the severity of symptoms unparalleled to previous data and 2020/21 patients are unlikely to recover.

All joking aside, the year of the Corona Virus has changed the perception on school for many students across the nation and the world. Favorite extra-school curricular like prom or football games have been cancelled, masks decrease the moral of many, and there is a common belief that with school ending in a little over four months, the amount of education received has not satisfied expectations.

My name is Justin Wolters, and I am a current senior in a Michigan high school. In many ways, I have experienced 'Senioritis' myself and in many of the my peers, if not each one.

When the threat of COVID-19 hit homes in March of 2020, I felt an excitement as school cancelled for the rest of the year. I was a junior at that time, and my tunnel vision towards sleeping in and video games distracted me from the sorrows of the current seniors. They lost their prom, their graduation, and the last few months of friendships that would not travel with them to college. I remember the day I sat in my last hour, hearing the blaring intercom fill the classroom and the tears as many faced their new reality.

There are many similarities in 2021 to what took place in the year prior. Things loved have been taken away and took hope with it. Many of us question why it is they are still in school at all, since they feel as though their year has amounted to nothing. The hopelessness creates a bubble around each student, and the laughs that have once filled the atmosphere cannot be heard at all.

There are some differences, however, that are important to point out. I like to call it the "Bubble-bee Conundrum." Imagine you are walking through a field of dandelions barefoot. In a moment, you feel a pain on your big toe and exclaim "wow, that hurt!" But now lets say you were looking at your feet, waiting to spot an incoming sting. You watch as the fluffy black and yellow stripes zoom towards you and you do everything you can to avoid the incoming sting, and yet it feels inevitable.

Of course, it is wrong to compare one sorrows to another. We all know a time when a mother scolded a child for wasting food, explaining that there is always someone less fortunate than them, and so the kid compares their entire life to someone who may, in fact, be less fortunate. But that doesn't discount their pain in any way; its just different. To compare this years sorrow to last years is completely wrong, but there is a key in understanding that the seniors of 2021 walked to their first day with the understanding that this year was going to be different. They began with an absence of hope, and hope was scarcely restored.

I recently spoke with someone I respect, and I told them honestly that I walked in to school the other day with feeling extremely apathetic. He happens to be an admissions counselor at a neighboring school to mine, and he told me that my feelings were shared with many students.

This week has been a super cold one in Michigan, and we've had snow days on two occasions already. This Monday, I fully expected another one, and when my phone was void of texts from the administration, I felt no motivation to brush the snow off my car for that day. I even told my parents that I felt no emotional connection to school, and if the rest of the year cancelled similar to last years, I would be unaffected.

That statement struck me hard.

I live a very social life and I am often excited to participate in extra curriculars like sports or music. I am currently in my schools Show Choir, and when we were told that our concert might look different this year and we may not be able to have it at all, I felt nothing. The rest of my team felt a ton of disappointment and I expected myself to feel the same, yet I felt void of emotions all together.

The feeling of apathy is so hard to understand. In my previous years, I would be so disappointed if I lost my school year, and yet I feel a desire to give up entirely. I know that this feeling is mutual around the globe. A desire to live simply in simplicity.

But, how do we treat 'senioritis'? How do we create motivation and change our perception? Is apathy something we can just wake up and not have?

I honestly don't have an answer that satisfies me.

But I do know that I hate feeling like I'm not being authentic or creative, and days that have been full of laziness and a lack of motivation only bring negative emotions and a loss in hope. I wish to change that, and I think I can.

I challenge you to do the same. To make the best of a hopeless year, and give yourself something to be hopeful for. You made it through one of the hardest years of our lifetimes, and the future is bright ahead of us.

I challenge you to wake up with something you look forward to; someone you can encourage or can encourage you; a goal that you wish to complete. This year is hard but empower yourself to do hard things. Whether you are the class of 2021 or not, make this year a year to remember and not for the bad reasons. Together, we can do great things, but only if we defeat apathy all together.

Sometimes, happiness is something hard to find, but I believe we have a choice each and every day to begin anew. So, come on, lets create a 'Senioritis' vaccine together, and make our final stand against apathy.