High school was rough for me… My spring semester of senior year of high school looked something like this: On March 13 (on the exact day of my birthday, btw), our school district got an announcement that our school would close down for two weeks. Of course, once we found out, we shouted and said, “SPRING BREAK NUMBER TWO HERE WE GO!” However, those two week turned into a month, and then students got a final announcement that school would remain closed for the rest of the school year. My senior year of high school came to an end before I even knew or realized. I didn’t get my senior prom or Decision Day on May 1st. There was no Senior Prank or Senior Skip Day. Graduation was nowhere to be in school administration plans. This broke Class of 2020.
Not only did our senior events get canceled, but teachers did not know what they were doing since everything went virtual. There were some teachers who made their assignments, exams, projects or essays online. Classes online started at 8 a.m. and ended at 2 p.m. Teachers didn’t know what they were doing and neither did we. We were all lost. This drained all of our mental health. We had no motivation to log into zoom or turn in work. It didn’t even feel like school. There were some days I didn’t want to log into class. I didn’t want to get up for “real” school let alone school where I open up the camera and that’s it. It’s not like we could go out either with friends because everyone was afraid of the virus and didn’t want to expose them to their families. In addition, most businesses were closed.
Now let’s add Senioritis to this whole mess of my senior year. Senioritis is a thing and it’s real. It means that one really starts to anticipate themselves leaving high school that they don’t focus on school work in classes. Seniors sometimes just lose motivation because they want to leave or they are excited about their future plans. Senioritis got me and this gave me no motivation to keep moving forward. I didn’t want to open up the computer and do work. I barely wanted to turn assignments in. I became a procrastinator.
However, this lasted for about two weeks after school closing was announced. I am here to give you some advice to pick yourself up from Senioritis. First of all, you are First-Gen, you need to show people what you can do, you need to show yourself how far YOU can go (if you know what I mean). I remember thinking “Estefani you need to show people who you are. Turn this assignment in. Log into this class. Don’t become lazy. Your parents didn’t come to this country for you to be lazy.” In addition, remember that the grades and the lack of motivation will hurt your grade. There is still that final GPA to think about. Another tip is to give yourself breaks during the day or week. School can get to be very stressful, but on top of that you add college acceptances, senior events, interviews, etc. That can get very stressful! Remember to give yourself time to breathe. Go out with friends on a Friday or read a book. A final tip I can give that I did is set reasonable goals for yourself. Don’t fill up your planner, but plan your day with things you can attain. If you can cross off everything in your planner, you will feel accomplished.
Just keep pushing through. Senioritis is a thing and it does exist, but it can be cured. There is a cure!