Stories are often told about a disease. This disease sets in sometime around a student’s senior year of high school, when the chore that school begins to become unbearable. The name of this illness? Senioritis.

Senioritis is a common term for an epidemic of chronic laziness that comes to students at any point in their senior year. Urban Dictionary defines it perfectly: a crippling disease that strikes high school seniors; symptoms include laziness, over-excessive wearing of sweatpants and athletic shorts. It typically hits later in the year (say sometime between March and May), but it can start whenever. Here’s the key, though: it always happens in senior year. Dear juniors and sophomores: sorry, you just simply do not have senioritis. You might think you know what it’s like, but I assure you, you don’t. Not until your final year of high school can you fully understand the aching tiredness and frustrating exhaustion that twelve years of public school can give.

Sorry, not sorry.

Senioritis is often caused by a lack of need. That is to say, seniors often don’t need to be in school  because they don’t actually need the credits that they are earning. Many seniors are in school for seven hours a day for a little over 8 months just to earn just one English credit. So what if “the law” requires school attendance? That doesn’t mean the seniors want to be at school any more than they have to be, especially for useless credits. The rest of the classes they are in aren’t necessary for graduation. They may have an art credit here or there, but mostly, the classes are just space fillers.

We tend to think that senioritis comes about because our high school careers slip low on our priority list. As seniors, we have our minds focused on other things, like college. We need to apply, save our money, and be accepted all while expected to keep up our high school grades. However, in our minds, high school is no longer a priority because it is pretty much in the past. We have to focus on our future because this time next year we will be living on our own, but here, we still have to raise our hands when we have to go to the bathroom.

Is senioritis avoidable? No. It might affect people differently, but you’re going to catch it at some point. So what can you do when the unavoidable plague of senioritis hits? Honestly, you only have one real option: let it hit. As Bingham senior Evan Thomas put it, “Senioritis is the most pleasant disease I’ve ever caught. So what if I go skiing every day? It’s way better than being in class.” Senioritis is going to get to you at some point, and maybe the best solution is to just allow it to happen. The thing about senioritis is that it’s not only a feeling of laziness and apathy, but it’s also a realization that there might be more important things than a perfect score on a test or finishing every single assignment on time. Not to degrade the value of good academics, but senioritis can help students understand that maybe that afternoon nap might just be worth it.