Senioritis

Alex Rajewski

I feel like saying someone has senioritis is like saying someone has a case of the Mondays. I think it’s basically joking negligence and a cop-out for not having the self-discipline to do the little that is really needed of you. The word is nonsense as well; “-itis” means something is inflamed, and we seniors are not inflamed.

So all around I hate the concept of that word, but I can be harsh in my judgments. However, I am finding it harder and harder to focus myself on my school work. I don’t have senioritis; I’m just being lazy.

Maybe I am getting this feeling a little earlier than most, but back me up on this, seniors: It is getting harder to stay on task. Every time I sit down to study for a test, I think to myself, “Let me just check my e-mail before I start.” E-mail leads to Facebook, which leads to blogs, which lead to Wikipedia. By the time I’ve satiated my curiosity and start to actually think about studying, one of my housemates asks me to do something.

Case in point: In writing this, I stopped for an hour to go to Wal-Mart. Did I need anything from Wal-Mart? Not really. Did I go just to buy a maple doughnut? Maybe. In the end I decided that some time with my roommate, whom I may not see after we graduate, would be more entertaining and fulfilling than writing a column alone in my bedroom. Logically, the column makes more sense. I’m getting published, I was asked to do it by my editor and she’s expecting it. This may sound at first like benign procrastination, but this sort of feeling has invaded basically everything that is school-related in my life.

My reasoning for the laziness is just as logical as the reasoning for industriousness. I learned in statistics that the more numbers you average, the harder it is to change the average by adding more numbers—I believe the term is a robust statistic. This means that my GPA is not going to change much this semester. Good or bad, it is pretty well set in stone.

There are also piteously few things that can affect my graduation. I need to pass five credits this semester to get my degree. I don’t know if there is a font or a smiley face for disinterested and superior laughter, but if there were, I would be using it right now.

This is not to say that I have checked out of Drake mentally or that I am apathetic. I still care about my classes and when I am in them, I listen and participate. But like the doughnut incident, when given the option, I would rather spend time with my friends or doing things that I really enjoy.

I call myself, among other things, a hedonist. I do not mean hedonism in the sinful sense. I mean hedonism in the maximize-the-pleasure sense. I would much rather spend my last weeks at Drake thoroughly enjoying every minute of it and every person I know. In general, I live for the here-and-now, because tomorrow may never get here.

In the end, I know that I have to find a balance. I really do not want to reference Immanuel Kant in an opinion column for a college newspaper, but I feel like I have to and I apologize in advance for this. But if everyone always acted with the same willful disregard for long-term responsibilities that seniors show in their last semester, society would probably collapse. Certainly no business or government would be possible.

At the same time, if we all lived lives of self-denial in pursuit of some future promised land, we could easily find ourselves dying before we get there. According to the categorical imperative, neither of these possibilities is correct because if everyone always followed them, then things would fall apart, or at the very least people would be perpetually unhappy.

I think that a blend of the two is probably more appropriate. Long-term goals are laudable, but so are short-term gains. My long-term goals have decades to play out (probably), but college is over for me in 12 weeks—and I intend to enjoy the time I have left.

Rajewski is a senior biochemistry, cell and molecular biology major and can be contacted at alex.rajewski@drake.edu.