Riley Stawski

Senior Julia Baer sits over her computer, defeated by the workload. Often during senior year, students bear the challenge of normal schoolwork and college applications. “[Senior year] is better than junior year, but I’m excited for it to be over,” Baer said.

Second semester senior year does not arrive quietly. It shows up in unfinished homework, longer hallway conversations and the sudden realization that motivation feels optional. The work has not disappeared, but the urgency has. For many seniors, the burnout started long before graduation felt real.

“At the beginning of senior year, I was already knocked out,” senior Gabby Licayan said. “I [don’t do] homework at all when I get home. The only time I ever do homework is in class or during passing, or I just don’t do it. [Senioritis] has hit hard.”

For others, even checking their grades has fallen off the radar.

“I forgot the last time I opened Student View,” senior Caleb Jobe said.

Everyone swears they’re busy, but everyone is also slightly coasting, and somehow, both are true.

“Last year, I had more tests, more assignments [and] more extracurricular stuff,” Licayan said. “[Last year I was] just being overloaded with a ton of work. This year, after having done everything for four years and finally [committing]  to a college, mentally, I’m so drained with everything. And on top of that, I still have to keep up with my schoolwork and still have to do extracurriculars. I think I am more tired now than I was in junior year.”

The tiredness is not the frantic, caffeine fueled kind. It’s just the collective exhaustion from the past four years weighing on you. Now, however, instead of staying home on the weekends studying, seniors are actually going out.

“Looking back at the three years I spent at [Jefferson], I was not one to hangout with my friends after school and then go out every weekend,” Licayan said. “But, now I hang out with my friends on the weekends and even on school days, which is a big transition for me.”

Somewhere between hanging out more and caring slightly less about minor assignments, another feeling creeps in; the sentimentality of senior year. Normal days start feeling important for no obvious reason.

“I think at graduation I will cry,” Jobe said. “I’ll be sad to leave here, even though I [have] mixed emotions about it. I’m probably never gonna see most of you again, and it makes me a little sad.”

Some seniors think it is strange to look around a classroom and think that this exact version of their life will not exist in a few months.

“I think I’ve always been a sentimental person, but senior year does make me realize how old I’m getting,” Licayan said. “You have to live in the moment, and I don’t think I’ve been doing that enough. I should have made the most of [high school] more. And, having almost finished it makes me realize how, in a year, there’s a good chance I won’t talk to any of these people anymore. This may be the last time I’m gonna be saying ‘hi’ to someone in the hallway or seeing them in a class. This may be the last time I see them in my life, and that’s a big deal to me.”

However, despite this slight sadness lingering in the back of our brains, most seniors are ready to move on to the next stage of their lives.