“Senioritis is the acceptance of moving on with your life. It’s the acceptance that you’re done with high school,” Senior Chris Hagenau said. In other words, it’s just a total lack of motivation to go to class, get your work done or just do anything school related.

Just how widespread is Senioritis? Well, seniors think that it’s spread to just about everyone.

“I’d say about 95 percent of seniors suffer from Senioritis,” senior Adam Melamed said.

Some, such as Hagenau, would not call it a suffering.

“I stopped doing homework a very long time ago,” he said. “Senioritis is not a suffering. It is a lifestyle. It’s a decision to live my life like this—I am making a decision to stay at home; I am making a decision to not do my work.”

But is senioritis a real thing? Some think that this is merely something of a placebo effect.

“Senioritis is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe in it, you succumb to it, and you’re just like, ‘Yeah I just can’t do it;’ obviously it gets more challenging to get things done,” Spanish teacher Scott Stalder said.

Many students claim to be under the curse of senioritis.

“I feel like Senioritis affects everyone, even the smartest of people. Sometimes the teacher will tell the smart kids to do something and even they will just be like naw,” senior Emily Caldararo said.

Many think it is just the wear and tear that four years of high school places on your mind.

“You’re almost done, so at this point you’re just thinking it’s whatever,” Caldararo said. “You just get in this mentality to just do nothing.”

Many seniors agree with this sentiment.

“You’re done with high school. You’ve just reached your limits. Some of the teachers like to pile it up [towards the end], but no one really cares at this point,” Melamed said. “As long as you get C’s.”

Often people attribute this to the fact that colleges are already decided. Bar any total collapses of your grades, there’s nothing that can really change that.

“You’re going to college,” Melamed said. “You know where you’re going to school and you know what you’re planning to do, so people don’t really feel the need to put in the effort.”

“At this point, I literally gain nothing by going to class. We just watch movies in class now. I probably gain more from just staying at home and sleeping,” said Hagenau. “We’re just done, there’s nothing left for us to do.”