Essay On Senioritis

“Senioritis: An ebbing of motivation and effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences, and lower grades” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary. "Senioritis"). All throughout America, thousands of seniors develop symptoms of this debilitating disease, especially during their second semesters. Is this epidemic a legitimate illness, or is senioritis just a rationalization made by lazy students? Although several seniors say otherwise, senioritis is a pseudo-scientific disease employed by students to slack on their studies and extracurricular activities. Despite senioritis being a fake illness, defense mechanisms, or “unconscious process[es] that protect individuals from painful ideas” are commonly used by seniors to make their impending futures seem less frightening ("Defense …show more content…
"Defense Mechanism."). The unconscious minds of these students are concocting the false illness of “senioritis” to try and justify their lazy behavior. Through rationalization, students will blame their negligence on the teacher for assigning such challenging homework or attributing their procrastination to their “busy schedule”. Seniors may even use displacement or the involvement of “taking out frustrations, feelings, and impulses on people or objects that are less threatening” by blaming their textbook they were supposed to read for being so boring ("Senioritis as Defense Mechanism." UC Berkeley). In conclusion, the unclarity of the future is nerve racking. Although senioritis is a false, rationalized illness coined by exhausted seniors, to help these students endure, the unconscious mind very actively utilizes defense mechanisms such as regression, rationalization, and displacement to cope with the drastic transitions into adulthood seniors will soon