The finish line is within sight — but your energy is flagging. Wouldn’t it be nice to kick back and relax, especially if you already have your post-graduation plans lined up? However, sports fans know the final seconds of the match can make the deciding difference. How can you beat senioritis and thrive in your last few weeks and months of high school?
What you need is the right approach. That last mile doesn’t seem quite as painful when you stay engaged in fun ways while honoring yourself and your understandable fatigue. What should you do? Here are nine ways to beat senioritis and keep on powering through school.
Keep Your Eye on the Prize
Visualization is a powerful tool to keep your motivation high as you battle senioritis. It’s even better when you combine it with real-world experiences that give you a tempting taste of the future. Whet your appetite for continued learning with these ideas.
1. Consider an Internship
High school students can get internships, and doing so could fast-track their future careers. Just ask Amber Merrill, who began interning at Gesa Credit Union at 17 and now holds a management role at the institution. She said securing the original position was the ideal way to discover if the business track was her true calling.
How did Merrill secure her internship? She asked if she could job shadow the back office to see where she might like to focus her studies. Today, she manages the school credit union program that launched her successful career.
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2. Explore Your College Campus
You may have taken the official campus tour when you visited schools. However, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The true discovery process begins once you select your university.
Sports are one avenue to explore. Even if recruiters aren’t hunting you down for your basketball skills, many universities offer intramurals. Campuses also offer various clubs — inquire about them now, as they’re an easy way to make friends. If you can afford to travel, spend time exploring the campus, as imagining yourself strolling the grounds as a student in a few months can keep motivation high.
3. Find a Mentor
A mentor can accelerate your career path even if you don’t go the four-year college route. Seek someone successful in your field and offer assistance in exchange for occasionally shadowing them and answering your questions.
For example, if you’re considering a field such as human resources, you might seek someone like Katie Juran of Intuitive. She earned a score of 90 out of 100 for disability inclusion from Disability:IN during her first year of employment. Learning from her example provides valuable insight for classroom discussions and tips you can borrow when building your career.
Help Others Make It
People are inherently social. In helping others, you also lift yourself, so beat senioritis by connecting through the following methods.
4. Join Support Groups
Sometimes, senioritis strikes because of anxiety. If the world seems like a frightening place and you’re unsure of how you can make a difference, you can feel paralyzed. Support your mental health for free by joining a support group for people your age. Finding others who share your fears can help you overcome them in a supportive peer setting.
5. Take up Tutoring
Maybe you always knew that you wanted to study astrophysics. Helping others understand the complicated calculus that goes into rocket science equations hones your abilities, too. Tutoring is an excellent way to earn extra cash toward books, stretch your entrepreneurial muscle and reinforce the material you learn in your lessons so you can keep making high grades despite senioritis.
6. Leap Into Leadership
Your leadership role need not be academic. You now “rule the school” as a senior — are there things you would change? Help future generations of students by taking the reins. Helping others also gives you a boost, stimulating the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine and oxytocin that keep you motivated through those final weeks of school.
You might work with the student council, start a petition, speak before the school board or all three as you seek improvements from healthier cafeteria choices to comprehensive education. People make up politics — be the difference you want to see.
Treat Yourself to a Bit of R&R
It’s also important to honor yourself. You’ve accomplished something great, and that deserves recognition. Besides, rest isn’t selfish — it’s how you manage your energy to be the best you can be. Cut yourself a little slack without caving to senioritis by trying the following.
7. Create SMART Goals
Setting SMART goals can help you beat senioritis and cross that finish line strong. SMART goals meet the following criteria:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
It’s important to choose a goal that’s meaningful to you. For example, you might decide to CLEP out of some of your undergraduate requirements to save money or leave more room for electives in your upcoming university schedule. Use the SMART formula to create a study schedule to ace the test — “I will score at least an 85% on the practice exam by X date.”
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8. Try on Some Healthy Relaxation Habits
Life doesn’t get any less stressful as you get older. The types of pressures you face simply change, and knowing how to manage tension is a crucial life skill that pays off in college, trade school and your future career.
As school winds down, beat senioritis by leaning into positive coping strategies that will help you throughout life, such as:
- Yoga
- Meditation
- Healthy hobbies like gardening or playing an instrument
Yes, the occasional spa day is OK if you can swing it. Better yet, have a DIY one at home with your BFFs to beat the end-of-school blues. You’re never too old for a slumber party!
9. Build “You” Time Into Each Day
Your senior year can get downright hectic between preparing for prom and applying for schools. Going too hard without a break can lead to burnout — which looks and feels a lot like senioritis. Both decrease your motivation and leave you not wanting to do anything, including activities you once enjoyed.
Manage your schedule by building at least 30 minutes of unstructured time into your planner each day. It’s another skill, like positive relaxation, that will benefit you in your adult life and make the last few weeks of your senior year more bearable.
Power Through and Beat Senioritis
It’s natural to lose a little motivation as high school winds to an end. However, powering through senioritis ensures you keep the grades you need for success while making this time memorable, not miserable.
Beat senioritis using the above tips. You’ll continue growing intellectually, emotionally and socially as you prepare to transition from one life phase to the next.
