You’ve made it—senior year. You started college three, maybe four years ago and every year you came to class, you did your homework, you attended extra-curricular activities and did what you could to make the most out of college.

All of a sudden, it hits you. This is your last year. You’ve been through every challenge college can throw at you and you just don’t care as much as you used to. It’s senioritis. And you shouldn’t fight it.

Senioritis is something we should accept: we’ve worked very hard to make it to this point, it’s a healthy transition away from college and it gives us a chance to enjoy the outside-of-class college experiences more. You’ve got a research paper to write, but you’ve written them before. How hard could it be?

The professor tells you attendance is mandatory and you’re thinking there’s no way they take attendance every class. You’re a little tired of doing work for classes you could be being paid to do in the real world. You’ve become a little over-confident and a little disinterested. It’s not as bad as it seems.

If you’ve made it to senior year, you’ve worked at least as hard as it takes to get here. Whether you’ve barely made it by or you’ve aced every course, you’ve put in the time and effort it takes to make it this far. Give yourself a little break. If you’re feeling unmotivated to complete that reading response, accept that. If you understand the material and can use it in your future job, don’t sweat the reading response.

Don’t fall back on your responsibilities, stop doing all of your homework, and end up failing. But enjoy a little freedom to not stress out about the small things. Senioritis is your brain’s way of telling you it’s ready to graduate too. Instead of clinging to college life and being unable to let go, your senioritis knows it’s time to move on. You feel like you’ve mastered this college thing and have better things waiting for you on the other end. In just a year or a semester, you’ll be able to enter the working world or head off to graduate school. If these future possibilities seem way more exciting than studying for a vocabulary quiz, you’re in a good place.

Senioritis means thinking about the future and preparing for it. While it may not help your GPA and may exacerbate your procrastination tendencies, it will help you look into future jobs and schools. It will make that transition away from college much easier. There will be things you’ll miss about college though, and senioritis can help you enjoy them.

Whether it’s spending a Saturday watching the entirety of “Stranger Things” with your friends or going to a club meeting on a night when you have a lot of homework to do, senioritis helps you take advantage of some of those things you might not be able to do after you’ve graduated.

Senioritis is natural and it’s healthy. The next time you’re trying to decide your priorities in life, a football game or an extra credit crossword puzzle, remember this is your last year in college. Make a choice based on what will prepare you to leave college.