My Take on High School Senioritis: How to Manage Your Mental Health

First off, CONGRATS on your next stage of life! This is so exciting, and I am so proud of you for making it this far!

The Disease:

I never thought this would happen to me. I love school. I always loved going to school and learning new things, but here I am as a senior in high school suffering from senioritis, from being overwhelmed to stressed out.

This article will help you tackle this disease and give you some reasonable steps to get you through the next month and a half or so, because if your graduation is around June 5th, like mine is, you are probably quite fed up. It's time to normalize ending senior year strong because this is the last time you will be in high school, and it's time to make the most of it!

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A Few Don'ts:

Don't skip school. I know how boring it can be in the last couple of weeks and just how much you don't want to be there. I totally understand it, but don't skip school along with your grades. This goes on your permanent record, and colleges and employers, and scholarship judges could see this.

Show up to school!

Next up, don't party so much that you are hungover on a school night. Partying takes a toll on you, and if you do it too close to school week, you will feel like you want to ditch, and that isn't a good thing. Just because this is your last year of high school doesn't mean you get permission to fly out of control.

Take care of yourself!

Keep those friendships going! Don't fall into peer pressure, and don't be a bully. Keep good relationships with others and be a good person.

Grades:

First thing that I'm going to say is so important! Maintain your grades.

I know that you might not want to because you've already been accepted into college or trade school, but they can revoke your scholarship or your college acceptance if your grades are not at the standard that they want. To add a little incentive to this, some colleges can increase your scholarship if your GPA increases from the time you applied to the time you graduate high school. So that's a simple reward for you to focus on your studies and do a little bit better than you did before.

When I say focus on your school work, I mean focus on your school work, but also don't stress yourself out to the point where you're pulling all-nighters or you are staying up super late and spending all of your free time doing school work. But also don't slack off to the point where your grades are dropping. Find that happy medium that allows you to get good grades, maybe not the perfect grades, but grades that are good enough that you are able to have fun and keep your mental health strong. So rule number 1 is to focus on those grades.

Deadlines:

The next thing I want to cover is deadlines. Now is the time when there are deadlines for everything: financial aid, housing, tuition, orientation, and roommates. Everything has a deadline, and it's going to save you a lot of issues if you just make a list of everything and all the deadlines, so you don't miss any opportunities or anything important.

This is sort of related, but stay on top of your college email. They will send you all sorts of things about course registration, booking orientation, move-in, and more. So make sure to keep a lookout for that, so keep an eye on deadlines and your email, because it's important and not just your high school. Stay on top of things and have them written down way in advance.

Friends:

Another piece of advice for you is to go have fun with your friends. Hang out with your friends, maintain those friendships because those people are your support system outside of your family. They know what it's like to be going through what you're going through, so it's important to keep them in your life.

I want to be a good person; senior year can be so stressful because of school work and moving on in life, so it can be easy to forget to be a good person. Never forget to be a good person or to be nice.

Mental Health:

Prioritize your mental health!

This is so much easier said than done, but I want you to actually take the steps to prioritize yourself. Get outside, be active, do things that you love, coloring, reading, writing, go to the movies, meet new people, or just have fun. You need to build a foundation of self-love and self-care because very soon you'll be in college or trade school or in a job, and it is so important to love yourself and prioritize yourself.

To take care of yourself because you're the only one who's going to be able to do that now. It's going to be solely on you, and you're not going to have people to remind you to take care of yourself and take care of your mental health. Do whatever you need to do for your mental health. Find a therapist, talk to people in your life, love others, and do what you need to do to be happy.

Make Some Extra Cash:

Next up is making money because life is expensive, so find yourself a job. Don't overwork yourself to the point where you're getting sick, or your grades are dropping, or you just have no life outside of work. This is so you can make money; make money for college, make money for a car, or whatever your expenses are. It's important they have a little Nest Egg built up, so make sure you're working to make that money.

What am I Doing?

What am I doing? I'm doing a bunch of things, and I am trying to prioritize not stressing myself out with my studies. While also working, because I know finances are a big stressor of mine, so working and doing all that is so important.

I'm also just trying to be a better person, and I feel like that's definitely changed my life, and I think that can change yours, too. Take those beginning steps to become a better person. Senioritis is totally curable; it just takes some time, and I hope this list helps you a little.