With epidemics of varying natures breaking out on a weekly basis, keeping up with modern health news can be crucial to staying healthy. A persistent, somewhat modern strain of an ancient ailment seems to have taken hold in MHS, however. This virus severely impacts the physical and cognitive abilities of the affected, and has even been known to induce completely lethargic states of mind. It is also highly contagious, as it can be caught by simply observing the infected.

It is the only known disease that impacts such a narrow group of possible victims — high school students ages 16 to 18.  It may start as nothing more than being a bit extra tired in class or scoring a few points lower than one normally does on exams, but it has the ability to escalate and mutate right under the nose of its poor victim until he or she is only a mere shadow of who they once were.  This is the grossly awesome power of one of the most widely destructive and narrowly studied health issues on the globe — senioritis.

Imagine a high school junior who has just walked out of his last AP exam with nothing ahead of him except a few quick weeks of class, a few tests, and then a summer of fun. He worked hard all year, showed the world what he can do, made his parents and teachers proud, and deserves to take it easy for a few weeks — right?

Wrong.  This is the lapse in mental defense that allows this evil parasite to invade your body and wreak havoc on studies.  It’s alright though, you were able to finish up junior year strong despite the initial infection and are enjoying the summer months without a single worry on your mind.

It’s still July, and summer assignments haven’t even crossed your mind. By August, the summer assignments lay undone, but it’s only halfway through summer so there’s nothing to worry about.  Then September rolls around and it’s too late—you have been beaten.  You are no longer in control. It owns you from this point on.

So after the annual all-nighter to scrape something together and pass it off as human writing, you think that you can return to your normal scholastic habits, but the bug has something else in store for you. When all of the first tests start to roll around it will tell you, “You don’t need to study, you’re a senior!” This assurance is enough to lower your GPA by a few points but nothing drastic has happened to your scholarly career.

Once you are completely and utterly destroyed and devastated by the college application process your body’s defenses are down.  The last fibers of morality, dedication, pride, and perseverance that you had left in your body have disintegrated into a powder of  lethargy that only further feeds the beast within you.

Once this has occurred, there is not much you can do aside from sit back and watch your academics flow away faster than the single tear flowing down your cheek.  Everything that you once believed in, that you once lived for, that made you what you are is now dead, and you are helpless in the process.

You can try to reach out to your peers for help, but this almost never works.  Half of them will be in a similar, if not worse state than you and the others will be avoiding you at all costs, as their averages are still salvageable.

While you are busy not doing school work you begin to notice things that you never have before: who your friends really are, what you do when no one is watching, where you go when you think there is nowhere else, when some tiny gesture can mean the world to someone, and why it is all worthwhile.  There is a word for what you see during your bout of senioritis: life.

Up until this point many never experience much outside of school. While it is still a terrible disease, senioritis is a necessary component of every graduating class.  That’s not to say that it is a good idea to cut class every day, but taking a step back to let the dust settle every now and then can’t hurt.