Thomas Paine wrote in his 1776 work “The American Crisis” “These are the times that try men’s souls”and on December 31st 2019 as the entire world said “New year, new me!!” the universe decided to try all of our souls bringing with it not just the new year, but obstacles like widespread forest fires, locust swarms, Murder hornets, the death of Kobe Bryant, and a world wide pandemic. While Covid-19 spreads rampant through the world another malady as old as time is making its debut back and better than ever.

Senioritis is a supposed affliction of students in their final year of high school, or college, characterized by a decline in motivation or performance. Symptoms include educational fatigue, lack of motivation, and crippling anxiety. Often those with senioritis find themselves saying “where do I begin?” Or “I’ll do it later” That being said It may sound akin to a normal bout of procrastination, however the truth of the matter is that with anxiety, the more you worry about balancing your current workload and what the future may hold, the less you accomplish. The less you accomplish the further behind you get, which leads to all the more anxiety. 

The cycle is vicious even on a normal basis, so including the fact that the world is in disarray with political issues dividing the people, large scale riots, and being cut off from almost all social luxuries, the pressure is high. 

After reaching out to a few seniors at Capital High School, they agreed to share their experience of quarantine and how they’ve been dealing with Senioritis. Upon being given the question ‘Do you feel the pandemic has increased or decreased your senioritis and how so?’ Ally Vancamp said, “It increased by like 100%. Well I mean even before the pandemic I was pretty nervous about the senior year so not having all the resources I had before the pandemic that would have helped me academically and emotionally has been rough.” Thea Deanon, given the same question responded with, “ Definitely increased, since we had a break I haven’t been able to interact with people like usual and procrastinate more and feel eh. For example, I just wake up at the same time everyday to look at a screen with all my assignments. It’s just really boring and not motivating.” 

With that being said there are the obvious cons, but there are just as many pros that came with the quarantine. Having asked, ‘Have you tapped into new support systems that you wouldn’t have explored if there wasn’t a pandemic?’ Talis Canfield responded with, “Yes, actually before the pandemic I went to therapy after the pandemic hit things got more stressful with anxiety, I started to go more than I would have without the pandemic so things are better mentally.” To add to the pros Thea also says, “I started talking to new people and have gotten closer to people I already knew. I got a therapist which has helped me develop better physical and mental health.”

In closing, these are the times that are trying all of our souls, remember that tomorrow is a new day, a new beginning and a new starting point to get it together. That is why it’s important to not give up, you are not alone and one day we’ll look back and laugh because not only did you survive 2020, but with all the barriers it put up you also graduated.