I’ve seen the tweets roasting those who post about their 4.0 GPA or dean’s list status on social media. I’ve liked them and retweeted them. I used to wholeheartedly subscribe to the notion that those who post their good grades on Facebook or Twitter are goody goody’s trying to get whatever attention they can while simultaneously making everyone else feel bad about themselves.
Then I finally got good grades.
Personally, I’ve always struggled with school. I had undiagnosed ADHD until freshman year of college. The last thing I wanted to see after my constant stream of bad grades, failed study attempts, and hopeless tutoring session was someone bragging about their 4.0 GPA. It made me feel much worse about my lack of accomplishments, and perpetually inferior.
Starting Adderall during my freshman year of college was the catalyst for my sudden success. My jaw literally dropped when after struggling to scrape by with a 2.9 in high school, I made dean’s list. For 18 years, I had internalized so deeply that I was stupid, lesser, and inadequate that I STILL feel inferior at times. People had never believed in me. My parents often thought I was lazy, teachers thought I was dumb, other students thought I was an airhead. And here I stood. The impossible had happened and I actually had good grades for the first time in my life. I had actually proven everyone wrong! Maybe I wasn’t the incapable fool that society had painted me to be? I was actually just like everyone else. I saw that people were sharing the Dean’s List or writing statuses celebrating their grades. I had a literal internal struggle about posting about my accomplishments. I had always laughed in the face of those people, who I had once viewed as brats. I felt an allegiance to those with bad grades. These were the people on my level, the people whose respect I most cared about.
I also felt like I owed it to myself to prove to those who doubted me that I had made something of myself. I shared the dean’s list and hoped that my fellow strugglers haven’t judged my too harshly. ADHD was the source of my struggle; other people grapple with things like family problems, medical issues, social difficulties etc. Earning good grades is more than just ace-ing a few tests. It means that you struggled, and successfully overcame obstacles. After these struggles, you truly feel the gravity of your accomplishment. Posting about your success isn’t meant as a grab for attention or a way to demean others, its’ intentions are just to celebrate your hard work, and demonstrate that even the most unlikely cases (i.e. myself) are capable of rising up and getting good grades.
I will never judge anyone for having bad grades. I’ve been there. We all have something to overcome. Even after I started adderall, I've still done badly in a few classes and not made Dean's List every semester. But I feel like I have a new perspective. Let’s celebrate each other’s accomplishments, and support each other; no matter if we post about our grades or not.
