This is a serious form of senioritis.

It’s beyond just slacking off in class and not doing homework.

This is that extreme desire to go to college, the readiness to move on to the next stage of life.

This is being eager to be independent and adult-like.

Obviously, this is common in seniors, rounding out their fourth and final year in high school. What surprises me, though, is this illness has stretched beyond just 18-year-old, college-bound students. The infection has spread to juniors and even sophomores.

I get it, college sounds like a great time. Living on your own, doing what you want, nobody to monitor what you’re doing every step of the way. Who wouldn’t crave that freedom? But to reach that point before you’re even halfway through high school is crazy to me.

High school, like anything else, is what you make of it. Therefore, if you deem it miserable, it probably will be. If you are not involved with the school or your peers, the years are likely to drag by slowly and indifferently. But think of it this way: we are all forced to be here, whether we want to be or not. So why not make the most of it?

College will be the time of your life, if you make it the time of your life that is. And high school can be, too. If you spend the resolve of your teen years dying to be an adult, you’re missing out. These are your last four years to be a kid, to have someone else be responsible for you, to make mistakes. After this, you’re all grown up and onto a new portion of your life. The last thing you want to do is leave your childhood with regrets.

So feel free to be excited for the future, but don’t dwell on it and waste the present. There is a ton to enjoy right now. If you spend all your time whining about how you can’t wait to be eighteen and move out and live on your own, you’re going to miss what you’ve got going for you right now, which is pretty great, too, as long as you make it that way.

Life’s what you make it, tomorrow is promised, live for today. These cliches don’t make themselves up. Somebody older and wiser is telling you to make the best of where you are and what you are doing right now. Don’t worry, this illness is easily curable; let’s save the senioritis for the seniors.