Every year in high school I have started the second semester, not thinking about how it’s a fresh start and I have a chance to bring up my grades, but instead thinking about how I have so much time until grades come out in the summer and is it really that big of a deal if I fail a quiz or two (or many, many more for any science-related classes) at the beginning of third quarter? I am then shocked and appalled when I get my third quarter grades and have to spend the entire fourth quarter trying to bring them back up to a respectable level.
When people talk about second semester seniors slacking off and going hog wild, I assumed that what they meant was I got to do exactly what I’ve been doing as a second semester freshman through junior except once fourth quarter rolls around I don’t have panic and tell my parents repeatedly that I have no idea how my grades got to this point and it shocks me just as much as it shocks them.
Apparently, this is not the case. I’m beginning to think second semester senior grades are the only grades colleges are receiving from the way my teachers are talking. Along with my usual fears of hypnosis and people in bunny suits I now have to worry about getting my college acceptances rescinded, which seems way too polite and professional a way of saying “getting your college acceptance stolen away from you and crushing all your hopes and dreams.”
I’m not even sure of what grades I need to get to have my acceptances rescinded. People have told me that I only need to worry of my grades drop to C’s or lower. That’s no cause for panic, but I’m sure it would not be difficult to do if I keep up the life of watching my Netflix Instant Queue and sleeping that I have planned on having during second semester.
Others have told me if my A’s drop to B’s I could get my acceptances rescinded, which is very, very much a cause for alarm because the odds of at least one of my A’s dropping to a B are as high as the odds of me watching “Arrested Development” on Netflix as I write this article. I cannot remember a time when my first semester B+’s haven’t dipped into the dreaded B to B- range third quarter, let alone one of A’s (and when I say “one of my A’s” I really mean “my A” because it seems like my report card can’t handle me getting more than one or two A’s in my majors at a time).
When people say kids have the “third quarter blues” (although I’ve never heard anyone say that directly, but I’m fairly sure people say something similar to that) they don’t understand just how depressing third quarter is. As opposed to the sun-filled days of fall, where we got one or two or ten days off each month and each TV show was aired weekly without fail, it’s no wonder my fellow Trevians can barely get out of bed each morning, let alone go to the fine institution that is New Trier Township High School and “learn.” Don’t forget the fact that most seniors have used up their lifetime supply of motivation in the last three and half years (although I’m pretty sure mine was gone halfway through sophomore year).
However, we must persevere. How, I don’t know, because the idea of doing my homework every night for four more months sickens me almost as much as having to get up at six for Early Bird KW does. We continue to do it though, not because we care about our learning, not because we hold ourselves to a high standard, but because our parents and teachers have installed the terrifying and realistic fear that if we don’t, everything we’ve been working for the last three and a half years will be snatched away.