on pre-senioritis

I am afraid that I've reached that point: I'm not really looking forward to classes starting. Everyone said that this would eventually happen to me, but I doubted them right up until the end of last semester when I burned myself out writing papers and taking exams between worrying about my friends graduating and my extracurricular obligations. Let's just say that I'm still tired when I think of that first week of finals! So much so that I'd like another break before I have to do it again...unfortunately this week I do have to take a test and I do have to write a paper and these are things which I've already spent a good part of my summer preparing for--which makes it not much of a summer break. I thought that I would enjoy more academics in the summer, and that I would like an extra challenge, but I misjudged the amount of tired I would be after the spring. I do think it's better to have something interesting to do than nothing at all, but summer just hasn't been as restful as I need it to be.

Anyway, instead of chalking it up to my research project I'll blame senioritis. I also never thought that this disease would affect me: I actually did better my senior year of high school than all my others despite taking 7 AP exams and leading three clubs and already being admitted to W&M for the majority of the year. Naturally I assumed that I just performed well under pressure, a hypothesis which all of my college experience also validates (more credits=higher gpa, more responsibility=better test scores, etc.).

But currently I'm at a point where I'm not eagerly looking forward to the next academic challenge. I'm ready to learn more about living life and taking responsibility, not about history (thank goodness I'm done with those GER4s!). Perhaps once I'm done with my summer responsibilities and once I've purchased new notebooks I'll start getting excited about textbooks and syllabi, but right now those are looking like some big hurdles and I'm feeling like taking a nap instead. Nine days is plenty of time to write a paper. Or five half-days. Or a night or two. Right? As long as I can get some rest in, instead of spending all these days worrying about not writing that paper, I think I'll be okay.