The Notebook by Aleeyah

The Notebook by Aleeyah - February 2026 Scholarship Essay

Senior year undoubtedly is the hardest year of High School. Though junior year is a close second, this final year tests your ability to work through a lack of motivation and different levels of seasonal depression. While all your teachers sit and tell you that it's only three more months, all you need to do is push through, you're sitting there wondering: Do you not remember this feeling? The slow pace of everymorning, the endless countdowns until winter break, and the college applications that took up the entirety of your first semester have left you extremely burnt out. All of these symptoms of senioritis are universal; I've experienced them, and so have all my friends. So how did i comabt this curse? How am I able to find the drive when there are only 119 days until graduation? The answer is simple. A handwritten list.
To combat the crippling burnout that I've experienced in the first semester, creating a handwritten list of all the things that I need to get done has now become my lifeline to finishing the year off strong. The lists include simple goals such as finishing the homework assignment that is due next week or remembering to email my teachers if I am going out of town, to as complex as planning out my 12-page senior thesis that is due in 3 months. The list held me accountable and pushed me to maintain focus when life began to get chaotic.
The feeling of crossing out each goal left me feeling accomplished, and like I was still making younger me proud. Senioritis can be debilitating, seeing firsthand how my peers have begun to accumulate absences due to lack of motivation is worrisome and relatable. But with the help of this list, I can keep myself accountable while simultaneously reminding myself of how far I've come.