The Online Reflector

By Andrew Gouty
Online Editor

Senioritis struck me this semester. It struck hard. I can’t say that it came quickly, but it was without remorse and has taken its toll on my attendance rate, and thus, my grades.
The last several weeks of ill-spent time procrastinating against a relatively small amount of homework, essays and exams has left me wondering why I have been so very against applying effort to my studies.

It’s not as though my last year at UIndy could be counted as overly difficult. Twelve credit hours to each semester, I had no shame in advertising the fact to peers who were forced to carry much larger course loads in order to graduate on time.

Even the courses that did consume my time could largely be described as “run of the mill.” There were no capstone projects, senior seminars or lengthy portfolios to make for endless hours of research or studying. In fact, I can’t readily recall there ever being such a time.

It troubles me that now that I’m looking at the end of my four-year college experience, the classes I took rarely took an opportunity to challenge me. By no means is that a statement by which I say that any or all of my classes are worthless. Some of them simply could have been worth more.

The angel on the right side of my shoulder would interject and argue, “You should have made more out of your classes for yourself!” Touché!

I could have written all my essays weeks beforehand or studied the extra hour at the library with materials external to those presented in the class. There was also that study group I ticked off my sophomore year. They could have been so helpful.

Meanwhile, my other shoulder has addressed me on occasion with a less airy voice, a raspy thing that Al Pacino could be proud of, “You could have spent your weekends in Bloomington!” And we all know what happens during the weekends at Indiana University.

But no, I spent my weekends by and far in Indianapolis, and when Monday morning came around and still no one had finished their essay, presentation, etc., the professor pushed back the due date time and time again.

In the cases where this happened, when I had prepared my assignment for said Monday, I was truly disappointed that I had gone “above and beyond” the regular level of student effort to finish work on time.

If I wanted to blame a sour attitude toward college on experiences like this, there would be quite a few to name and number saying, “This is why I’m ready to get out!” That plethora of variables makes it hard for even individuals to label reasons for the collective ill that is senioritis. However, the disease does unite us in one very real sensation: we’re ready for something new.

But a less than intact college learning environment isn’t why. The truth is that I feel enriched by the four years that I spent at UIndy and the opportunities it’s given me.
The same feeling that encroached upon me as I left high school has been creeping slowly since the fall semester, and if I have any wisdom about why it has come again, it’s this.

When we left high school, seniors had something to prove: that they could survive another environment. One more open, more challenging.

Now the environment graduates enter is another more open, and perhaps more challenging. Even if it is not, the field is perceived as more open, and the figurative fences that hold college students in the format of their classroom disappear to offer a larger plethora of reasons to avoid class.

So, my fellow graduates, and those of you who will join that classification in a short order of years, thank you for a fantastic few years in which you drowned out the voices shouting at each other across my shoulders. I will miss them.