I refresh Canvas in hopes my grade might change and I can have a stellar report card from my dreams. Unfortunately, repeatedly refreshing is just an excuse to not view the numbers before me.
I know I'm not the only student gazing at their grades on Canvas and loathing what they see. Some calculate and recalculate the scores needed to boost their grade. Others have already taken their finals and are hoping for the best. I feel the stress emanate from my peers as they attempt to disguise it with crafted laughter. I hear their muffled screams of frustration when they are mere decimal points away from the grade they want, no, the grade they need.
I sympathize with them. I know it physically hurts sometimes. The awful thoughts that permeate your resolve to do better sometimes win. They tell you that you can't do it. That you should give up. That you are failure. You shed tears once, twice, maybe thrice.
You don't want to go home because your friends seem to be doing so much better. Your parents will ask you how the semester went, or worse, how you did on your exams. The winter break you yearned for is no longer as exciting.
The fact of the matter is, the end of the semester is not the end of the world.
Everyone has experienced a bad semester. A class was harder than expected. There was a death in the family. You mismanaged your time.
Rather than trash on yourself because of a certain letter on your report card, it's a time to learn from your mistakes. Ask yourself how next semester could be better.
One way I overcome bad grades and difficult finals is placing everything in perspective. I recall my high school self-stressing out because AP exams were two weeks away. I remember coming home feeling terrible after my Biology midterm. When I look back, those worries shrink in comparison. They serve as a reminder that I persevered through that hard time in my life and that I can rise above whatever is stressing me out at the moment.
Picture your teenage self ranting about their difficult exam and unreasonable teacher. How would you comfort your past self? What would you tell your young self? Take the advice you would give your teenage self and apply to the present you. You know what calms you down. You know exactly how you felt at that moment in your life. What advice could be better than from the you that has lived it?
The worse semester of your life could be your last, or replaced with another one. With a little perspective, you can tackle the next "end-of-the-world" scenario that comes your way.