Three.. More.. Months.. That’s it, after 13 long years of a curriculum chosen for us and schools we had no say in attending there are only three more months. If you’re a senior, that is.

At the beginning of our high school career here at LHS we were all herded into the gymnasium where they told us all these cheesy things like, ‘High school will be one of the best times of your life’ or ‘You can do anything and be anything you want.’

All things we’ve grown up hearing, but one that stood out to me was them saying these four years of high school will fly by, and I don’t know about the rest of you, but my immediate thought was ‘no way, high school will never end.’ Boy was I wrong.

Now we’re in the final stretch. The last few months that somehow both speed by, but also crawl at the same time. We’ve reached that weird point in our academic lives where our body and mind enters a Spring Break mode that can last from anywhere in the middle of the first semester of senior year to Summer. The condition only gets worse as the months go by and it hits an extreme during and after Spring Break. It’s an epidemic, and almost every senior seems entitled to it. So far scientists haven’t been able to find a cure. It is: Senioritis.

For many, the first semester of senior year is still important; some schools want seventh semester transcripts for admittance. By second semester the only thing that seemingly keeps victims of Senioritis going is not having their spot at their school of choice taken away. There are very few things, at least academically, that could be worse than having your number one school rescind your admission.

Outside of that, however, there is almost nothing to keep these poor creatures motivated. Even with the threat of admission being rescinded, most seniors work on a minimalistic power level. Many will begin to accept a C on an assignment and a one page essay can morph into a half a page that barely has a clear thesis.

Foreign language becomes gibberish where the teacher speaks the language to the entire class, and everyone leaves asking how many words they understood. A lot of seniors will say, ‘none lol’ with a quick laugh, but the very best students might say, ‘I caught a good five or six.’ Everyone else will be awestruck, and then quickly move on to their next class with what looks like drool flowing down their individual chins.

Sciences become almost exactly the same as Foreign Language in that you go into these labs and all the jargon the teacher says begins to sound just like the parents in the classic “Charlie Brown” TV shows and movies.

They become zombies and when they discover someone is actually trying in their final semester of high school they quickly work to rid them of their effort. Effort, a word most victims can’t bare to hear.

Transitional Spring weather acts as a catalyst for the sickness when kids discover they can again wear shorts; that’s when all becomes lost. Teacher’s have to compete with windows for a kid’s attention.

The smallest chirp of a bird can make anyone affected lose complete focus on a lesson they were already only focusing on at 5% power.

Teachers are prepared. Most start off the Spring semester telling the infected that they understand what is coming and will make it easier on us. But for some of the infected, a teacher could say, ‘for class today we’ll be eating cake’ and some victims would still groan about the work that’d be awaiting them in that class.

They’d moan and say, ‘why do I have to chew when I could just sleep instead.’ And in the back of the classroom you could actually hear the sniffle of a victim holding back tears, who thinks it’s just too damn hard to eat cake.

But, by May 27th, all these kids will be met with the only known cure in the universe: graduation. After months, no years of moaning and groaning about the struggle of America’s public school system, they’ll find themselves hugging or high-fiving some of the people they maybe were only acquaintances with. Cheering with their closest friends that they’ve spent their entire lives with. Thanking the teachers who changed their lives, and when they finally realize that they all made it… they’ll simultaneously realize one more thing…

It was all worth it.