I’M SO TIRED.

Senior slump is back with a burning vengeance

It’s that time in the semester when everyone is in the post-midterm slump. In years past, I’ve struggled with maintaining high energy levels and consistent motivation to keep up with my work, and I always managed to make it out fine. But for some reason, this year things feel different; more challenging, more difficult to push through. My mornings feel like wading through molasses. My brain feels like it’s buffering. The deep fatigue, lower energy levels, zero motivation to get up and go to class in the morning, and consistent tiredness. I’ve concluded that this is due to one of two things: 1) something in the solar system is in retrograde, or 2) senioritis. 

I’m familiar with senioritis. I got it bad during the spring of my senior year of high school. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, emotionally tapped out, and my motivation had completely flatlined. It was part of the reason I was put on Lexapro (but not the main reason, let me clarify that). I had weeks where I would miss classes due to anxiety attacks and stress. My parents were worried I wasn’t going to graduate due to all of my absences. I was so done with high school and worn out. 

But now that I’m a senior in college, senioritis has returned with a vengeance, hitting much sooner than it did back in high school. I’ve had mornings where I slept through my alarms and felt too exhausted to get up, even though I had a full 8 hours of sleep. I feel out of order and worn down. Some days, even walking to class feels like dragging a sandbag uphill. It’s not that I don’t care; it’s that I’ve been caring so hard for four years that I’ve run out of steam. What’s ironic is that my workload isn’t even that bad this semester. My classes are manageable, my grades are solid, and yet the exhaustion I’ve been bottling up since freshman year is starting to spill over.

But what exactly is senioritis, and why is it hitting now? It’s defined as a decline in motivation and performance experienced by students nearing the end of their academic careers. While the term ‘senioritis’ jokingly implies that it’s some sort of inflammatory disease, the core of the issue is often a very real form of academic burnout. For college seniors like me, this phenomenon is driven by a unique set of psychological pressures: reaching our main career goals after years of working toward a single degree, the anticipation and identity shift of graduating, and the sheer fact that I've simply maxed out my mental energy. It’s the emotional hangover of working toward a goal for so long that you forget what life looks like beyond it. My brain is essentially pre-burning out in anticipation of the major capstones and final projects to come, which is why this exhaustion is so profound, causing a mental block.

I think that’s part of why it hits seniors so hard. Graduation feels close enough to touch but still just out of reach. There’s this strange in-between space where you’re both nostalgic and restless, grateful and completely over it. You’re wrapping up a chapter of your life while trying to prepare for one that hasn’t even started yet. The brain doesn’t exactly know how to hold all of that at once, so it kind of just shuts down.

For many of us, this kind of profound mental block has a name: executive dysfunction. Executive functions are the set of mental skills responsible for getting started on tasks, prioritizing, and sustaining effort. It’s not a moral failing or laziness; it’s more of a temporary short-circuiting of the mental machinery required to transition from wanting to do a task to actually doing it. Recognizing this helps me move past the guilt and focus on finding strategies that work with my ADHD brain, not against it.

I have a long list of passion projects I want to—and most certainly have the time to—complete before I graduate, like updating my portfolio website for the umpteenth time, applying to post-grad jobs and internships, writing more blogs, cleaning out my closet of clothes I don’t wear anymore, or starting back on my running kick after taking a ‘break’ for a few months. But I am just so burnt out, and I lack the motivation to do any of those things. I feel unproductive, like I’ve hit a wall. I know I’m not the only one, either. 

My close friends have been experiencing the same feeling. Low motivation, consistent exhaustion, or heavy stress from overworking themselves. I always preach to them, and myself, that taking breaks is important for your health. But I keep using that as an excuse to get myself out of completing the tasks I actually want to do. “I’m so tired from my classes today, I’ll just take a break for a nap when I get home and work on it tomorrow.” Procrastination steps in and replaces the true meaning of taking a break.

To combat this cycle of guilt and avoidance, I've had to stop seeing rest as an escape and start seeing it as an investment. I'm trying to hold onto two important affirmations: "My value isn't tied to my productivity" and "Done is better than perfect." I’m also realizing that my 'breaks' need to be less about checking out and more about strategically recharging. I’m experimenting with the 10-Minute Rule: I commit to working on one high-priority task, like applying to a job, for just ten minutes. It takes away the pressure, and often, once I start, the inertia carries me further. If not, ten minutes is still a win. It’s time to move past the guilt of low motivation and embrace the fact that this feeling of burnout is temporary, and that small, manageable steps are the only way to climb out of this senior slump.

And truthfully, I think that’s what this stage of life is about. It’s the last stretch before everything changes, the final lap before real adulthood begins. It’s terrifying, yes, but also weirdly beautiful. People forget sometimes that senioritis isn’t just about burnout, but it’s also about the ache of transition. The exhaustion of closing a door that’s been open for so long. The strange, bittersweet pride of realizing you’ve grown up right where you once dreamed of being.

They mean it when they say that college is the best four years of your life, and while it was an exhausting and grueling four years, I would relive all of it again in a heartbeat. Maybe I would do a few things differently knowing what I know now, but I wouldn’t want to change any of the friends or memories that I’ve made along the way. Carolina has stolen my heart since I was a little girl, and while I have grown up and worked my ass off these last four years at UNC, I’m ready to see what the future holds for me so I can continue to make that little Carolina girl proud.