Do you feel like your motivation has diminished now that it’s your last year of high school?

Senior Omar Ruiz: Yeah, for sure. For example, last year I felt like I was a lot more motivated to do my homework on time. There were times that I would slack off, but for the most part, I was motivated. This year’s completely different. From the first semester, I felt like I didn’t care very much. Like I cared about getting good grades, but I would always turn my assignments in late or at the last minute. It’s especially worse this semester, I like stopped caring.

Senior Benjamin Hopkins: Yeah, I’d say I’ve gotten rather behind in my classes. At least it’s felt like it.

Senior Christon Ray: I feel like it has, in a way, just because it’s the last year. Last everything that I will experience in high school. It’s like all the teachers adding on all this work just makes it so exhausting to just do because it’s your last year and you don’t feel like doing anything. 

Senior Jacob Hopper: My motivation has definitely diminished. Just like everyone else, probably. I think a lot of us have senioritis, and a lot of us have it pretty bad. I definitely have it pretty bad. I’ve stopped caring about most of my classes that I don’t need to pass, but there are some classes that I try to focus on a lot, like Econ. I’ve tried to do my best in that class. Aside from that, I don’t really care that much about the others.

Why do you think that is?

Ruiz: Probably because it’s my last year. In my head, I know it’s like all my time in high school and that it’s now my final year, it’s kind of unmotivating. I just wanna get it over with. The fact that I know it’s my last year, that after this it will be over, is just so unmotivating for some reason. I’m just tired of school. I love it sometimes, but I’m just so tired of it.

Hopkins: For me, at the start of the year I did okay. But as time went on and after I got my acceptance into Purdue Polytech West Lafayette for CIT, I kind of just felt like I already accomplished what I was trying to do in high school, so I chilled out for a little bit.

Ray: Honestly, it’s different for everyone, but for me, I’ve always struggled with having the motivation to finish my work. Especially last year. My junior year was not a good year because I had no motivation at all towards the last few months of school. Going into senior year with everything that I’ve learned from my junior year, I’ve tried to keep my motivation up just because this will be my last year and that it will be low. 

Hopper: I think we’re all just tired. We’re all ready to go. We all wanna move on. I think everyone has just experienced everything you can in high school so they’re not really any fun in it anymore. Senior year is an important year, but it kind of just feels like a little transitional area or period in your life where you’re just waiting for things to be over so you can get on to the next stage. That’s part of why I think senioritis exists. 

Have you been trying to consistently keep your grades steady and keep up with your class work?

Ruiz: Yes and no. During the beginning of the quarter where there are new grades, usually no. But then when I realize, oh shoot my grades are falling, that’s when I start to bring my grades up. If you talk to my calculus teacher, she’ll tell you. I won’t turn in any assignments in the beginning of the quarter, but then when I see my grade drop and the quizzes and the tests come up, that’s when I start doing things. It’s a really bad habit and I need to stop doing that.

Hopkins: After spring break, I got sick for about three days. That’s when it kicked in for me. I got a terrible case of senioritis, I would say and I got behind in a lot of my classes. So now, I’m working hard to raise my grades and keep them steady for passing classes.

Ray: I know a lot of other people have lost motivation to do any work, but I’ve pushed through and just tried to complete all my assignments the best I could. It’s mainly the assignments that I’ve focused on because I knew those were what I would have trouble being motivated for.

Hopper: I’m kind of on-and-off with schoolwork, I think. When it comes to my more important classes, the ones I need to pass, I always try to keep up with the work even if I do fall behind a little bit. It’s not too bad, and I still try to do as much work as I can if I remember. In some other classes, I just don’t care as much.

Do you think that you’ll be able to refocus once college starts up?

Ruiz: Probably, and I hope. Architecture is a very time-consuming major, so I’m gonna need to. Plus, my mentality for going into college is, that college is way too expensive to not lock in, to focus. I need to because it defines my career and my entire life. I plan on locking in, trust.

Hopkins: Honestly, locking in at Purdue isn’t going to be an issue at all. I mean, I didn’t have a choice of the high school I wanted to go to. On top of that, we barely had a choice of what classes we wanted to take. You know we’re always told we have to take English or we have to take a required math or science. And then, of course, there’s the electives. I’ve dabbled around a little bit of everything. I tried graphic design, and I took some computer science and engineering classes, but I guess none of them grasped my attention like my Purdue program. I feel like after you’ve wanted to go to the place so bad it’s hard to just make it through the doors and give up. I’m ready to commit and lock in.

Ray: College is gonna be drastically different from high school. Just because I’m gonna have more me time. My classes will be more spread out depending on how I schedule them. I’m going into biochemistry, so I’m gonna have to lock in because there are some hard classes I have to do. Definitely, I have to refocus once I go to college, but college in general is different from high school.

Hopper: I wanna say yes, but I’m not really sure. I’m not really sure how good my work ethic is gonna be in college. Every year I tell myself, “Okay, I’m gonna have a better work ethic this year. I’m gonna get more assignments done. I’m gonna get them done in a timely manner. I’m not gonna procrastinate.” But I always end up turning in late assignments and procrastinating and all that stuff, the cycle never changes. I don’t think it’s gonna be any different when I get to college unless I do some sort of dramatic change.