HORNET’S NEST Proctor Academy | May 23, 2023 | Vol. 8 | Issue 6
This Spring’s Plague By Griffin Stewart
2020 was one of the most challenging events our community survived. Three years after the Covid pandemic, we wonder if we can handle the current invasion: Senioritis. For everyone living under a rock, Senioritis, as Wikipedia defines, “...is the colloquial name for the decreased motivation toward studies displayed by students who are nearing the end of their high school, college, and graduate school careers, or the end of the school year.” However, it’s more than just feeling lazy, it is an illness ravaging students on this campus. In a recent survey to the Proctor community, 88% of 69 students reported suffering from this illness. Reports are of rampant daydreaming, missing or late homework, excessive Jake’s runs, and even falling asleep on the turf. These symptoms can be devastating to a student’s life. Senior Eliza Lewis explains, “It has made me thoroughly dread going to school and absolutely annihilated every ounce of academic motivation I possess.” It’s vital to understand how this spreads among students. I asked some seniors how they contracted the illness, and the findings were shocking. Grace Shad reports, “I contracted the disease in the winter of my junior year … I went on Mountain and became friends with many more seniors. Because of this, their contagious senioritis spread to me … By spring term, the disease had completely overtaken my body.” Many students also agree that seniors are the main source of campus infection. Still, there are other ways to contract the illness, like the inevitable start of summer and dwindling class sizes.
Many seniors claim that senioritis infects them in junior year, so I asked juniors Jackson Etheridge and Willem Hurd as well as sophomore Chris Chol about this. Have you contracted senioritis? Jackson: “Yes... I’m in a class with a lot of seniors, and seeing them leave knowing they all have senioritis, especially, you know, the ones who are on campus… Um, you know,… I think I’ve been clocked out since the seniors left. Still getting that work in, but you know, little by little, we’ll get there.”
Chris Chol & Jackson Etheridge
How has it affected you? Chris C: “‘So, yeah, I just completely stopped caring, ... I just show up for the food, get some dinner, go back home. See, that’s my life.’” Do you ever hope to get rid of senioritis? Willem H: “I absolutely hope to get rid of senioritis. I contracted it from all my senior friends, … and I’m afraid that if I don’t get rid of it, it’s gonna carry on into my actual senior year. And I can’t get bad grades. I gotta respect the grind. I hope they find some medicine that helps cure us.” One proposal is to treat senioritis like the last pandemic by masking up and implementing a vaccine for all students. Yet studies show that this may not be effective in stopping the spread. The final way scientists and professionals say to manage senioritis? Just embrace it. Willem Hurd