By: Bryn Huber and Morgan Robinson

We all know what "senioritis" is, but have you ever heard of junioritis? It is a very real and widespread phenomenon that the juniors here are experiencing as summer approaches and rigorous AP exams are coming to a close. Symptoms include laziness, procrastination, sleeping in school, and even more. In this article, we will dive into the causes of junioritis and the various ways it can be cured.

 

The leading cause behind juninoritis is pretty easy to deduce: junior year workload. Whenever someone tells family or older friends that they are heading into your junior year of high school, most of the time they are greeted with "good luck" or "it’s the hardest year of your high school career." Of course, like most teenagers do, they ignored these warnings from their wise elders and walked into school with a beaming smile across their faces. However, this smile soon fades as many are welcomed back from the long summer break by homework on the first day of school, and it just all seems to go downhill from there: AP course work, SAT and ACT, college prep, and much, much more. Thus, it is pretty easy to understand how junioritis pops up year after year.

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Not to worry! Though highly contagious, there is a cure! Here are some ways that are thought to aid in junioritis:

• Going on walks outside during class has been proven to enhance students' ability to concentrate and increase productivity rates.

• Playing games in class; these can include board games or even an educational kahoot!

• Drawing. Don’t ask why, but the older students get, the more they love to draw meaningless things such as hand turkeys or flowers all over their paper.

 

Of course, there are more formal ways to cure junioritis, such as snow days and the built-in vacation days throughout the school year. However, having 10-minute walks or chill class days that are for catching up on work are also great ways to help combat junioritis!

 

All jokes aside, junior year is an extremely academically demanding and mentally exhausting time for students. With the immense course load, pressure to begin looking at colleges, and students beginning to prepare for standardized tests, it is understandable why students burn out at the end of the year! So, if you see the motivation start to dwindle as the year begins to come to a close, remind junior students to keep up the hard work and finish the year strong!

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