Pictured Above: Mark Parker is a senior mass communications major.
Courtesy of Mark Parker
By Mark Parker
When Thomas Paine wrote: “these are the times that try men’s souls” in 1776, I am pretty sure he was referring to his bout of senioritis. Despite being 224 years old, Paine’s words could not ring truer.
We’ve all experienced senioritis. For some it was only a few years ago. For people like me, it has been since dial-up internet. It’s like chicken pox – worse when you are older. Regardless of how long it has been, for us college seniors it is back and more virulent than ever.
You know the symptoms.
The educational fatigue, lack of motivation and crippling anxiety. The not-so funny thing about the anxiety is that the more you worry about balancing your current workload and what the near future holds, the less you accomplish. The less you accomplish the further behind you get, which leads to even more anxiety.
It is the definition of a vicious cycle.
Speaking of balancing workloads, for most seniors it is not just academics and clubs. It is also work, taking care of a house, pets and bills. It is grocery stores, car repairs, credit scores and I don’t have time to do all this damn laundry. For some, this even includes taking care of a family.
While students and psychologists would agree that senioritis is real, it is not an official medical diagnosis.
The thing is, 2020’s seniors are also experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic. Writing about COVID-19’s effect on senioritis, not to mention everything else that has gone on this year, gives me the same thought I have when I am sitting down to do my schoolwork these days: “where do I begin?”
I moved here alone from Crystal River to attend USF St. Petersburg, and because I have always loved the area. I have no family, no girlfriend, no roommates and no good friends here. I can’t even have pets, although, “Caroline,” the stray cat I befriended, has been an emotional lifesaver at times. I did have my classmates, co-workers, and the beach and bars downtown to keep me company. Until I didn’t.
When things got bad at the end of March, I was fortunate enough to work from home for a few weeks. Then I was laid off. The end of the spring semester coincided with the height of St. Petersburg’s lockdown and COVID-19 restrictions. I had no school, no work, no human interaction and not even the beach. I did have a lot more stress, a pool and alcohol.
Summer semester began but that was only two classes. A meme circulated that said something to the effect of “we’ll come out of this lockdown either a master chef or an alcoholic.” I wouldn’t call myself a master chef or an alcoholic, but let’s just say I got better at cooking and drinking. When the beaches and restaurants started opening up, I began to make up for lost time.
Then came the fall. I was excited to go back to a full load, but it did not take long for the senioritis to set in. Taking everything online, trying to lock myself inside alone for long periods of time again, social unrest, a political system in shambles, a struggling economy and the fear of how the ongoing pandemic will playout during flu season has all exacerbated this.
So, I carried on the tradition I started months before when I got stressed and wanted to get out of my own head. I would go out drinking.
I could also finally go see family in Crystal River, and have friends come down to visit. However, all of these things seemed to make me more behind in my studies, which made my senioritis worse. Here comes that vicious cycle.
Now would usually be the part of the story where I give you helpful tips on how to combat your senioritis.
That is not going to happen here.
You can google those, but I assure you there is nothing that integrates that recurring problem with a global pandemic and the myriad of craziness that 2020 never seems to run out of.
On Friday, the president was flown to Walter Reed Hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, less than two weeks after our governor completely reopened the state. There is no manual for dealing with this pandemic.
These are the times that try men’s and women’s souls, indeed. So, do your best. Sometimes that will be enough, and sometimes it might not be.
I think that’s okay right now.
You are not alone, and one day we will look back and brag that we didn’t only survive 2020, but we also graduated in it.
