The home stretch, the last inning, the final four: I’ve heard everything from my teachers to describe these last four weeks of high school for me and my fellow classmates. I’ve also heard too many reasons for why we shouldn’t succumb to senioritis, and until these last few weeks, I thought I was immune to it—that is, until my teachers decided to throw this incredible homework load on me for the last few weeks. Do they want me to remember my last moments as a high schooler as being under great stress?

Not to throw any of my teachers under the bus, but from day one of my senior year, my homework load hasn’t been anywhere close to heavy or challenging. I’ve had two classes that I actually had to put some time into and only one that I had to work really hard in. Come March, that one class turned into a study hall, luckily. A few weeks later, spring break came, and as my teachers expected, senioritis hit me. But that wasn’t the only thing that hit me—my homework load also began to increase. I thought this was supposed to be the ending? Now it feels like it’s only the beginning.

Teachers have continually given my classes that tired speech: “The end is almost here, don’t give up now!” I had to cure my senioritis fast—I didn’t work as hard as I did my first three years to give it all away at the end. I had to get back into the junior swing of things. I even had to start using my agenda again, which is unheard of for seniors at this time of the year. I haven’t felt like I’ve been working this hard since junior year—on which I know every senior can look back and feel the pain. I understand that teachers get frustrated with slacking students, but giving us more homework shouldn’t coincide, in my opinion.  

I’m not the only one that notices this change. The other night my mom came into my room around 11:30 and asked why I was still up. Her eyes widened when she saw a pencil and punctuation packet in my hands. I told her I was still doing homework. While she was proud that I wasn’t just skipping it, she was in shock—my older sister had everything but homework to worry about her last few weeks of high school. I never thought I’d have to say,  “Sorry, not tomorrow, I have to stay after to work on a project,” when asked if I wanted to go senior prom dress shopping.

So should teachers buckle down at the end of our last year of this hormone-ridden thrill ride we’ve all finally made it through? Are seniors just lazy? I’d like to say neither.