With fourth quarter just around the corner, a case of “senioritis” has spread throughout the Southeast Class of 2019, and is in full swing now. With graduation only a couple months away, it’s no wonder that Southeast’s students are ready to throw in the towel and put their final hat of high school on.

Senior Samuel Province found himself stuck with the “illness” towards the beginning of the year when it first dawned on him that he was in fact, graduating. He looks forward to graduating, but struggles to find it within himself to get the necessities completed.

“It’s been difficult to find motivation to get things done,” Province said. “Especially if they’re not directly relevant to the next few years of my life.”

A common struggle for seniors is to plan out their lives when they are still unsure of what to do in the next year. Province is still deciding between Doane University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He plans on becoming a teacher, but he’s unsure of where to make this a reality.

Province’s senioritis has had the side-effects of lost interest in school work, class absences and a general apathy for school. It is necessary for other students to watch out for these common behaviors in their senior friends.

In order to deal with this senior illness, Province has involved himself in theatre, forensics, running, speech and debate and other activities. They help him keep some motivation in his life to complete goals and everyday tasks.

A common cause of senioritis is the nerves that the next year will bring them. Like Province, seniors are sometimes afraid to move on and scared of having to start over socially. Yet, he looks forward to “getting to start the next part of [his] life and move on.” Province has been fortunate to have role models that have led him through high school and pushed him to his fullest capabilities.

“[I am going to miss] the teachers that have guided me towards success and all the friends that I’ve made up to this point,” Province said.

Province isn’t the only senior struggling through these final months. Senior Cierra Keska has also found herself stuck in the senioritis despair. While signs of senioritis began forming last semester, it became more noticeable this semester.

“First semester, I noticed myself doing less of the work needed,” Keska said. “I would wait to read a book until a week before it was due so I could write the paper for it.”

Keska found herself in a situation where she didn’t want to do her work, and the tendency for her to forget the necessities began its route. This problem has only grown for her this semester, and now she turns to her mom to help her fight her battle.

“I’ll usually tell my mom what my plans are for the homework I’m doing, and what night I’m doing it on,” Keska said. “[This way] either she can remind me, or so that I can even remember and remind myself because I said it out loud at one point.”

Short-term memory loss is a common struggle for seniors as they have a lot on their plates. Not only do they have to worry about their actual school work, but they also have college applications, graduation preparations, scholarship essays and a majority of seniors have jobs. It’s no wonder that they struggle with keeping it all on track. Time is valuable, and they have to keep assignments as a priority, yet with their classes, some are simply put on top of each other.

“When I have an assignment that I have a while to work on, I’ll put it off until last minute,” Keska said. “I have other assignments that are due before.”

Along with their class load, seniors are often found worrying about growing up and taking charge of the future ahead of them.

“I’m looking forward to graduating, but at the same time it really stresses me out,” Keska said.

She worries about letting her parents down while she’s attending college at UNL to become a veterinarian. Becoming a vet requires a lot of schooling, and her parents are investing a lot of money into her future career. Keska worries about balancing work with more homework, and finds her fear forming from the pressure that her future is putting on her.

“I’ll need to be more responsible with some of the choices when I graduate which is kind of scary to think about at this time,” Keska said. “I’ve had more help in high school than I ever have throughout my schooling. Part of my fears is that I won’t have that help after graduating.”

Keska is faced with the realization of the inevitable loneliness after high school. Like Province leaving his social circle, this new profound freedom of post-high school can really take a toll on students.

“I feel like I’ll miss the atmosphere,” Keska said. “I knew a lot of the teachers prior to my high school years simply because I have siblings that are older than me. Having some of the teachers that I knew already really lifted a weight off my shoulders simply for the fact that they knew a lot of the things I was going through.”

The connections that students have formed with teachers at Southeast are tremendous, and while they will be missing their friends, they will also be missing out on the relationships they’ve formed with their role models.

“I’ll also miss the security guards,” Keska said. “They were great and they really helped me stay on track and be okay with being in school.”

Another senior, Izayiah Bahr-Kulawik, has also been dealing with a recent case of senioritis.

“It feels like a lot is drawing to a close, but man, it feels like forever too,” Kulawik said.

In order to compete with his senioritis, he enjoys being able to chill and enjoy what time he has left at Southeast.

“[To cope with senioritis I] talk to people I don’t usually talk to,” Kulawik said. “People are really cool at our school.”

Each person has a different personality and it makes sense that Kulawik wants to form as many connections before he starts his new journey. However, sometimes his senioritis gets ahead of him when he plays his Nintendo Switch with his friend Kasey Fazel, or streams shows while working on a paper. Multi-tasking can be seen as a useful work habit, but can also lead to a distraction and prevent you from your fullest potential.

Besides dealing with distractions right now and racing until the end, Kulawik is excited for graduation that lies ahead. He’ll miss his friends and the teachers, especially Samuel Segrist, Greg Spangler, Ethan Van Winkle, Nate Myers and Adriana Martinez, all who have been some of the best and most incredible influences in his life. Yet he’s ready for this upcoming chapter of his life.

“It’ll be so weird,” Kulawik said. “But it’s a new step in life that has never really scared me. It should be an interesting shift for sure, but it’s rad.”