As the school year comes to a close, the yearning for summer gets stronger. For seniors across the country it is the end of one chapter, and the beginning of a new one. They are about to be released from their city’s school system and into the real world to become functional adults.

Considering this is their last year, seniors develop what is called “senioritis”. The symptoms include, showing up to school twenty minutes after the bell, skipping classes, and turning in work a month late (or not at all). Like many of her peers, Senior Alisson Meza didn’t believe in senioritis until it happened to her. Meza says, “You get to this point where you’re like ‘I’m a senior, I’ve already gotten into college and I know where I’m going. You start to have a lack of motivation but you just gotta push through because hey you’re almost there, one step closer into graduation.”

Like any other senior, she is motivated by three things: warmer weather, graduation, and looking forward to what’s to come in the future.

    Most seniors are juggling the stress of trying to get into colleges with jobs, sports, keeping up with school, and more. Meza is not one to keep from having her hands full with an internship with congressman Himes at the government center, babysitting, tutoring, and volunteering at Person to Person, where she has been a youth group leader for two years.

    With all of this going on it leaves one question: how do you stay sane? Meza says it consists of “ spontaneous adventures, mini photoshoots, and reading a lot.” With all of the stress, the remedy will always be friends and doing things you love. Like Meza says, “The key is doing what makes you happy with the ones who make you happy.”