It might not be a valid medical condition, but just ask any high school student as we move closer to Spring Break: senioritis is very, very real.

As high school students, we’re practically conditioned to respond to warmer weather with restlessness like dogs salivating at a bell — a warm wave of spring weather at the end of long, cold winter is teasing us with the promise of the freedom of summer. Juniors, sophomores, and freshmen might think they’re feeling ready to be done with it all, but be warned: if you think it’s bad now, imagine being a legal adult, already accepted into college, picking out your dorm, roommate, and major for the next four years, and still being expected to sit in a desk from seven hours every day and learn about calculus or literature or economics, or whatever else you know is basically never going to matter again after you graduate.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that even the most well-meaning students might see their grades stumble at the end of senior year. For the first time in our lives, we must deal with real-world issues and make decisions about the rest of our life outside the fishbowl we’ve spent the past four years of our lives in — when you’re busy stressing over college commitments and leaving home for the first time and the $160 thousand dollars the average 4-year college education costs these days, carving out the time to sit down and figure out what the limit of the derivative of f(x) is seems a little less important by comparison (as much as I adore Mrs. Elderkin).

Sure, our grades still matter (yes, colleges are allowed to rescind acceptance letters if your grades tank during second semester, despite popular belief), but once transcripts are sent off in the fall it’s difficult to feel like that’s the case. We’ve spent the past four years bent over textbooks and planting metaphorical seeds that we are just finally seeing the sprouts of, so it’s no wonder that seniors have a tendency to act like we’re constantly overworked and over pretty much everything.

So, seniors: yes, it’s hard to muster up any sort of enthusiasm for trudging through your daily classes, but I promise you it’s worth it not to completely “check out” just yet and I promise we’ll get through this together, soon enough. And for everyone else: maybe we’re not suffering from an actual medical disease, but maybe have a little empathy for the kind of position we’re in nonetheless ―it’s been a crazy four-year ride, and the rest of our lives are just getting started.