I have somewhat of a confession to make. In high school, senioritis never really ‘hit.’ After I was accepted into Stevens, I decided to take it easier in my classes, but a lot of them were AP classes that I’d be taking the exam for soon. Since AP credits carry over into college, it made sense to study the appropriate amount of time for them in order to make those classes worthwhile. Afterwards, the teachers also didn’t want to do anything, and since the exams were over, there wasn’t much of a point to studying new material. It all became busy work.
The point that I’m trying to get to is that there was never really a point where I made the decision to stop working. I just … kept going.
Now that I’m in my senior year at Stevens, I’m not sure when I’m supposed to catch senioritis. In some ways I feel like a fraud; how can I be writing for this column, when writing for this column is itself proof that I don’t have it quite yet? Theoretically, senioritis is something that can’t be written about while it’s being experienced.
On top of that, I was recently accepted into the Accelerated Masters Program. On the one hand, a lot of the classes I’m taking now will count towards my graduate degree. On the other hand, it feels a little like I’ve been accepted into college again; why should I bother working hard when I’ve already been accepted?
Besides schoolwork, I’m the President of The Lodge, as well as writing for The Stute and being an active member of other clubs. Oftentimes, it feels like there’s more work for these organizations than for schoolwork.
The question that I’m running into is, when is it enough? At what point am I justified in just saying that I’m done and tapping out? Maybe it’s because of the year that we lost, but it really doesn’t seem like I’m supposed to be done yet. I still feel the same drive to get my homework done and go to my classes.
That’s probably a good thing. There’s obviously still a lot for me to do, and the more that I can learn and the more that I can work with organizations on campus, the better. Being at college has been a great experience for me, and I don’t plan on wasting the time I have left by not being involved. There’s a fine line between working hard and hardly working. If I hang out with people from a club that I’m on the e-board for, is that time spent working, or is it time I spent relaxing? Of course, I wouldn’t change it for the world, but it’s something that I wonder about.
For now, I just want to see where the next semester takes me. At the end of this semester, I won’t be on the e-board of any organizations, which means I’ll have less responsibilities, so I can decide then in what way I want to contribute to the community. Maybe by then I’ll have caught senioritis—maybe not. Only time will tell.
Senioritis is an Opinion column written by one or two Stevens student(s) in their last year of study to discuss life experiences during their final year at Stevens, and other related subject matter.
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