Currently, as a junior in high school, I would say I had a “sophomore slump” last year. Everywhere on social media, people talk about their case of “Senioritis” or the “Sophomore Slump” they went through, but what is the difference between the two? As Wikipedia states, Senioritis is defined as a “decreased motivation toward education felt by students nearing the end of their high school.” Similarly, Wikipedia defines Sophomore Slump as “when a sophomore fails to live up to the relatively high standards that occurred during freshman year.” 

I would say my sophomore year was probably the most eventful time of my high school career. Other than all of the personal things that were happening outside of school, there was so much happening within my life at school. I either had some silly drama with my friend groups, or I was not doing well in one of my classes. Generally, sophomore year is not  good for anyone, and I feel like that is the year everyone experiences something that just sticks with them.” The best way to determine the true difference between a sophomore slump and senioritis is to talk to some people who have experienced both. 

Olivia Yackey, a senior at DHS who is on the tennis team and plays soccer, says that her last year at DHS has been “ pretty laid back. This year, I have gotten involved with a lot of new things, like joining the girls’ tennis team.” When we started to talk about the actual effect of senioritis, she said that because she has already been accepted into college and has all of the necessary credits to graduate, it makes it harder for her to stay motivated. In her experience, Senioritis “feels like a mix of stress and just being tired overall.” She continues to say that the stress she feels comes from getting accepted into college, college visits, scholarships, and figuring out how to pay for school as well as the difference between high school and college. She then explained that her senioritis makes the ends of her high school experience feel draining. In her words, the only way to fight senioritis is “getting involved with things helps to get you into a routine so that when you don’t have something planned to do, you will still feel the need to do something.” What I took from our conversation is that even though a lot of people look forward to their senior year being laid back and “easy,” it can also be challenging to keep up with the school work that they do because of the relaxed environment they are surrounded by within their classes. 

I remember my sophomore slump from last year. I found it difficult to keep myself motivated just to come to school, let alone, keep doing my school work. When I asked Olivia about her sophomore year, she said, “I got into a bit of a slump and I think it was partially because I was in classes with seniors who were graduating, and their mentality (senioritis) rubbed off on me, so I started to slack off because I wasn’t motivated enough.” I think when you are a sophomore, the excitement of being in high school starts to wear off, and you become less excited about being in school. When Olivia was talking about how her slump felt, she described it as if everything was going slowly, and she felt it made it worse that she was only active in band at the time. I never found a way to fight the sophomore slump, and I found that it was easier to just ride it out until there was something that could override it naturally. During our conversation, Olivia said what she did to overcome her slump was simply to keep herself busy. Try to find something to keep some motivation like a new hobby or make some sort of plans to look forward to.

All in all, there are only a few differences between the two, including lack of motivation and school feeling very slow, and there are similar ways to overcome the slumps. As Olivia says, “You have to know your limits and not overload yourself, but it’s important to give yourself a positive routine.” I think this is the perfect piece of advice to overcome any sort of slump in any year of schooling. As a junior, I found that it helps the most to do your best in school and to take care of yourself outside of school, especially your mental health. To keep yourself motivated in school, just remember that a slump will not last long and always just try your best, even when it gets harder and harder.