By Kimberly Valle
You start your journey with a clean slate. New teachers, new buildings, new life. You’re shy, you’re nervous, you’re excited. You enter the building and suddenly, you’re swarmed by other students who are trying to make their way to class. They glance at you as you awkwardly observe each classroom, looking for your first block. You walk for a while, taking your first steps into your first class.
Your journey continues, by your second year, you’re vaguely familiar with the classrooms, enough to make it to where you need to go a little faster than usual. You figured out that room 202 is across from room 201, and that the gender neutral bathroom is on the left wing on the second floor of the building. People glance and give you a quick smile as they make their way to their new classrooms.
At this point, you’re used to the routine. You wait for your friends to get to school, so you go to the windows on the stairs and watch them trickle their way in. You sleep late the night before, texting your friends about how much you missed them. When you see them again, you point out new and old things you still have, as you make your way to your first block. You know this routine, the glance and smile, but you begin to wave and say “hi.” You walk in and say hi to your new teacher, who you’ve already met before because you’ve had lunch in their classroom. Nothing is unfamiliar to you anymore. The new drama doesn’t surprise you, but rather, you “expected it.”
Final year, same routine. You’re late to class, because your friends took so long to get there. As you walk up the stairs, you greet other friends who you haven’t seen in a while. You go, and go, and go about your routine.
It’s exhausting rewriting the same thing over and over. It’s exhausting to read things that are all the same, just different versions. Enhancing your knowledge on things you love, but you’re so tired from the day before. You take a nap in class, only to realize that you had important things to catch up on, making you fall behind.
This is senioritis. This is what every ChiArts student has experienced at least once as a senior, and it’s dangerous. From 8 AM to 5 PM, it’s all up to you to determine if you’ll win, or lose the fight.
A student from the music conservatory states that they’ve been getting increasingly tired in classes, and have “been incredibly exhausted” having to show up to class. As we had our conversation, the student stated that they had auditions to deal with all month, causing them to fall behind.
Though this is just one student who had a difficult time there have been many that have been struggling to succeed with senior year. Through our last semester, many seniors have spoken out about their academic grade depletion, and how all that’s keeping them motivated is graduating.
