IU epidemic: senioritis

Senioritis is a common disease primarily diagnosed in second semester seniors. This epidemic swept through the city of Bloomington early on in January and seems to have infected the majority of the senior class.

Symptoms might include a lack of desire to attend class, decreased motivation to work your hardest, inability to concentrate on anything school-related and forgetting where the library is located.

People with senioritis commonly spend their days stumbling from their bed to the couch at least six times a day. If the sun is out, you can find them hanging out at a picnic table on the patio at Kilroy’s on Kirkwood drinking a cold beer.

If you’re one of the lucky ones who has already landed a job post-college, it’s probably hitting you the hardest.

While the unemployed seniors may be feeling stressed with schoolwork and the job hunt, but still can’t find the energy to start writing those term papers, you guys deserve to skip class and enjoy that nice cold beer.

After four years of college, this phenomenon is pretty common.  Unfortunately, the only cure is graduation.

I, too, am suffering from symptoms of this illness. But at the same time, I’m also growing nostalgic. I realize I can expect a lot of bittersweet “lasts” from now until May 4.

My last time sprinting up the Ballantine Hall stairs and arriving to class in a cold sweat is fast approaching. So is my last time waiting in the 20-minute Starbucks line at the Indiana Memorial Union in between classes, because “God forbid I sit through class without my coffee.”

I’ll miss the familiar faces greeting me as I arrive on the third floor of the Herman B Wells Library. The next few weeks will be the last of having no worries aside from attending group meetings and turning in papers on time.

Last, but definitely not least, this is our last chance to sit in a class as a professor imparts wisdom.

This is our last time to hang out with my friends, play sink the biz at Nick’s, lay out on the roof while “This Is Indiana” blasts from the speakers and our last time to stay at Kilroy’s Sports Bar until close.

If you are reading this and feeling similar symptoms, congratulations. You have a bad case of senioritis.

Don’t fret. It’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Actually, you are in the same boat as the majority of your fellow classmates.

This epidemic allows seniors to feel entitled to do whatever they want because they have a legitimate excuse, and it’s called senioritis.

Tom Petty said, “You have four years to be irresponsible here. Stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don’t have. Drink ‘til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does.”

Seniors, we’ve come a long way. Let’s make the most of these next three weeks. It may be the last time we’ll be able to use senioritis as an excuse and get away with it.

­— azaslow@indiana.edu