One Chapter Ends, Another Chapter Begins

This is the beginning of the end. However, I do not mean in the common thought of the biblical notion of the apocalypse; I am reffering simply to the end of my high school education and the beginning of my college years.

Any teenager can tell you that the situation into which I find myself thrown can be a time of self-discovery and relaxation, a quick breather in the race of of life. It is High School Senior Spring. I find myself a person who is caught in an unusual zone where I no longer tackle five hours of homework a night to keep abreast of my academic pursuits. I am now doing the things I want to do, whether it is hanging out with friends, looking interesting videos up on youtube, or reading books that have collected dust on the bottom shelf of my bookcase. A new term has been introduced into my lexicon: "senioritis." A good definition of "senioritis" would be the nascent laziness of a college-bound senior This sickening disease of senioritis has taken hold, or at least that is what everyone keeps trying to convince me.


Frankly, I am not so sure. Is the behavior I am exhibiting really senioritis? For example, I am hanging out with my friends. Well, according to dictionary.com, the definition of an education is "the act or process of imparting or acquiring particular knowledge or skills." I gain pieces of knowledge and nuggets of wisdom that I would have never come across without the pooled knowledge provided by my friend base wxposed to me through basic social interaction. I also enjoy reading books that are not included in the sillabi of my various classes. Now, I learn many things from my school classes; however, my perception of the world and the people in it are greatly influenced when I supplement my institutional learning with an auxilary source of knowledge. These are simply two examples of behaviors that teachers or administrators would consider the outward signs of seniors who simply don't care about their classes anymore.


I would strongly disagree with this popular notion of the "lazy" senior. Senoritis should not be a term used to describe high school seniors who are plagued by some "disease" of idleness. It is just an individual's re-evaluation of his or her own education. Slaving over homework and sitting through class are just two ways to learn; socializing and persuing independent interests are simply other methods of education that help one define him or herself. I hope that popular culture at some point can stop focusing on this aspect of our education and focus on the students' development as individuals.



On a side note, some blogs that I found interesting:



http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/

http://www.buzzmachine.com/

http://michaelgracie.com/

http://www.blogherald.com/

Thank you for reading.