Forty-four days left of school and I can feel it present in everything I do. Every time I procrastinate. Every time I forget I had something to do. Every time I spend less and less time working on homework. Every time I stay up later and later at night. It’s like a voice inside my head that won’t go away.

Senioritis. While I have had it for most of this semester, it is progressively spreading throughout the senior population by the minute.

It’s certainly not a new phenomenon, but it’s always a fascinating one. It’s not hard to understand why we experience senioritis as seniors in high school and college. Major time periods in our lives are coming to an end and our futures aren’t crystal clear. It makes sense that we experience a certain amount of disinterest in our obligations when we are soon moving on to something new. However, how are we supposed to react when it finally hits us?

In my opinion, senioritis is something that you deserve. I have worked hard all through college and have the grades to prove it. So why should I bother now? To me, having senioritis is a little reward for working so hard the past three and a half years. I might as well take advantage of this mental instability and enjoy the time I have left here with the friends I’ll soon have to leave.

For other students, senioritis is more self-induced. Take my friend Billy for example. He has spent the past three and a half years toiling over a Forensic Science degree. He has recently decided not to pursue a career in said field. If he’s not going to use the degree he is graduating with, why should he stress out working for an A when all he needs is a passing grade?

I know on paper I must sound like such a slacker. However, anyone who knows me can honestly tell you that I am the type of student that can easily say “screw it” and blow off schoolwork. It’s just in my nature.

No matter who gets senioritis and under what circumstances, I can’t help but wonder if senioritis is meant to show us what is more important: the fact that our time in college is coming to an end.

We’ve spent the past four years building a home only to have to leave it this coming May. Senioritis is often seen as a nuisance; something that just prevents you from getting your homework done. Maybe we should start seeing it as a blessing; something that opens our eyes. Graduation is almost a month away. At this point, if we haven’t pulled our heads out of our books long enough to see that all of this is coming to an end soon, we should.

As each week blows by, we run around writing papers, going to class, and working at internships or part-time jobs. If we keep running through our day-to-day routines instead of looking up at what’s around us, we aren’t going to have time to really say goodbye to our college experience the right way. I’m not trying to say that we should be blowing off all of our responsibilities. But I do think that responsibilities should take a little bit of a backseat to appreciating the rest of the time we have here. Personally, I don’t mind having senioritis because it’s allowing me to do just this.

I hope that every other student can also find a way use their senioritis to their advantage.