Dear everyone,

I wanted to take this time to apologize for my lack of effort these past few days. To be completely honest with you, I’ve been twiddling my thumbs and waiting for the end to take me. But, I am slowly but surely finding my effort again. Hopefully, my story will inspire you to kick Senioritis’s butt!

Consider this column to be something like one of those anti-smoking commercials that tell you why smoking is bad. I’m going to tell you my story about why slacking off is bad.

My name is Amanda Lee, and this is the story of how I lost my effort and then found it again.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Amanda Lee. She was a second semester senior in high school, and she had essentially lost the will to do anything. She had gotten accepted to college, she had done all her scholarships, she’d gotten good grades, and as her time at high school was nearing its end, she began to adopt the “why bother?” attitude.

She didn’t go completely crazy, mind you. She wasn’t willing to throw everything away because what if one of those colleges told her “Hey! You slacker! We’re taking away our acceptance and all our scholarships!” That would essentially crumble her world. But, she did begin to slip.

She stopped caring. The passion she had whenever she approached school was gone. She didn’t do work to her usual par, she wasn’t working on assignments as soon as they were assigned, she was putting things off and procrastinating further than she’d ever gone before, her checklist had items left unchecked, but she didn’t care.

Why bother?

She thought that she was done, she had checked out and would rather sit in her room twiddling her thumbs than write her paper, or study for her quiz. It was easier, and she didn’t think anyone cared. She certainly didn’t.

But then, just as she was beginning to settle down in her no work, be lazy state of life, she found out that someone did care. A teacher actually scolded her, had noticed her cut corners, her lackluster, and called her on it. Suddenly, the excuse that no one really cared evaporated because she was sitting in class getting chewed out for not caring herself.

Well, that wised up our dear Amanda quite quickly. After her lecture had finished, her cheeks still warm with shame, she began hunting for the very thing she had said her farewell’s to. She began hunting for her effort.

This was a lot easier said than done. It’s hard to get back on top of things when you’ve been lying down letting everything pass by. But, there was still that teacher- the teacher who had given her the harsh reality check: school isn’t done yet, and she couldn’t quit now.

No sense slowing down when you’re this close to the finish line. She knew that this was the time to give it her all, to go out with a bang.

And so, she looked deep inside herself, and her backpack, pulled out the homework that was due the next day, closed the Facebook, Tumblr, and Youtube tabs, and got to work. At first it was hard, and to be honest, she slipped up a few times and went back to the wonderful bliss of distractions.

But! She checked herself, reminded herself that there were people out there who were counting on her and went back to hack it out.

It’s hard, it’s painful, and you’re not going to like it, but you can’t give up now! Not when you’re so close to finishing. If you think that no one cares, then read this: I CARE, AND I WANT YOU TO FINISH STRONG. So, stop slacking, get up, close the unnecessary tabs, and get to work. I can’t let you waste away your last quarter at high school.

Love always,

Amanda