I went from having a 1.something GPA freshman year and have stuck with a 2.something GPA ever since. This used to bother me a lot, and after this semester, my GPA has gone down a tiny bit. But for the first time ever, I’m really not bothered by it.
It’s taken a lot (I can thank my wonderful girlfriend for a lot of this) for me to finally realize that… it’s just a number. When it comes to my character and talents and even many measures of intelligence, my GPA does not define me. I’m still a kind, smart, optimistic, creative, loving, GOOD person. No weighted grade points or bold black letters and percentages can change that.
I was upset for a bit because I got a C in a class that I REALLY loved and worked super hard in (Poetry Writing) and I was really banking on doing well despite it being a difficult and harshly graded class. But then I remembered: it was a class that I REALLY LOVED AND WORKED HARD IN and out of which I got SO much valuable knowledge and skills that are important to ME, as well as wonderful new friends and an unexpected comfortable environment dubbed as my “poetry family”. It was a fantastic experience and I wouldn’t trade what I learned for any amount of A’s.
You see, for me, the greater part about being at this wonderful university is not so much the $100,000 piece of paper showing that I can procrastinate on papers and regurgitate information, only to forget it days later; no no. Granted that’s apparently my ticket to “making it” in life… but honestly, that’s not what’s keeping me going anymore. This time at university is about me: my array of experiences, my knowledge gained, and the many incredible opportunities for ME to take advantage of that can really only be found somewhere like this. When I spend time thinking about academic material on my own and enjoy discussing it with others/putting in effort into its work and feel like I’ve learned something of worth by its end… that’s when I know a class was really worth it. (That’s why I changed my major to English; so I could have more of a choice as to what I WANTED to learn about, because that’s where my passions lie and therefore where I’m more likely to excel, because that’s just how my poor, odd-method-of-functioning brain works.)
For those of you that don’t know me well/have bothered to read down this far… conventionality has never really been my thing anyway. I’m finally gonna let myself act how I feel is right. Which is exactly how it should be.
