Chapter Eighteen - The Glorious Burnout of Senioritis

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The Glorious Burnout of Senioritis

“DON’T TAKE YOUR foot off the gas and jump out the car. Just put it on cruise and hang a leg out the window.”

Let’s start with economics.

I took Intro to Econ and then AP Macroeconomics.
And look, both were solid classes. Great teacher. Some fun lessons.
But the whole time I kept thinking… why are we not learning about taxes?

It’s like every adult ever says, “They never taught us how to do taxes in school.”
And they still didn’t. And here I was, literally sitting in a class about the economy.
We learned about supply and demand, opportunity costs, inflation, interest rates, and GDP… but no one ever showed me how to fill out a W-2. That feels like a missed opportunity.

Don’t get me wrong, econ is useful.
But once you get the basics, it’s kind of all fluff after that.
Supply and demand? Crucial.
Opportunity cost? Makes you rethink every choice in your life.
Everything else? Feels like it could’ve been one unit in a bigger “How The World Works” class.

And macro? I’m convinced it should just be a section inside regular econ.
Like, why are we pretending it needs its own title? Come on.

Then there was AP Statistics.

Stats was… stats. Not great, not terrible. Just kind of existed.
Lots of symbols. Lots of weird math. Some of it useful.
Did I study? Not really. Did I pass? Barely. Moving on.

Which brings us to the real heart of this chapter:
AP exams, burnout, and the myth of the grind.

Senior year, I went all in. I took five AP classes. Latin, Stats, Human Geography, Psychology, Calculus, and an Honors college credit English Class.

But here's the thing: I didn’t study for most of them.
Not because I didn’t care. Not because I wasn’t smart.
I just never found a good study method. Ever.
Not in third grade. Not in high school. Never.

Studying always felt like a joke with no punchline.
Flashcards? Fell asleep.
Group studying? Turned into chaos.
Notes? Never opened them again.
Eventually, I just gave up on the concept entirely.

I still managed to get a 4 on AP Calculus. Without studying.
Which proves one of two things: either I had a hidden math gene… or none of us knew what we were doing and the test just liked me that day.

And then it hit.
The beautiful, chaotic slide into senioritis.

There’s a moment near the end of high school where you stop caring. Not in a bad way, but in a very specific “none of this actually matters anymore” way. You see the light at the end of the tunnel and think, “You know what? I’m good.”

And I really got hit with it.

There was this paper in AP Latin.
Huge paper. Massive chunk of the grade.
Like… 20%. Final stretch of the year. Could’ve made or broken my final letter grade.

And I just didn’t do it.

Straight up. Didn’t even try.
Teacher asked a few days later, “Hey, are you going to turn that in?”
I said, “No, I don’t think so.”

She blinked.
“You know that’s really bad, right?”
“Yeah.”
“That’ll drop you to a D.”
“Yeah, I think I can live with that.”

And I did. Ended the class with a 68.
A D. Technically passed.
And in the grand scheme of things? Never mattered again.
Until now. Until I wrote this chapter.
That’s the only consequence.

That’s senioritis.
It’s not about laziness. It’s about coasting. It’s about finally breathing after four years of grinding.

My advice? Don’t crash the car.
Don’t let your foot off the gas and leap out the side door.
Just put it on cruise control. Maybe hang a foot out the window. Feel the wind.

You earned it.