In elementary school, my parents started me off on the right track to success.

They used to help me with my homework, often correcting it if they could, and making sure it was always done. They assisted me in projects, but they never did them for me of course. As I grew older and wiser I became completely independent when it came to school work. My parents no longer made sure I was doing all my homework and they were never the parents who checked each and every grade online.

I don't think they even knew that was an option. They both just assumed I did all my assignments and did them well because I had good grades. My report cards were reflective of the effort I gave inside and outside of the classroom. As I entered middle school, and then high school, I was placed into all the advanced classes. I was smart. I wasn't a genius by any means, but I guess you could say I was above the norm.

During my senior year of high school I took 3 AP courses and did fairly well in all of them. Honestly, I didn't have to study too hard to earn A's and make my self and my parents proud. Okay, maybe Economics was the exception, but nevertheless I survived. I had pretty good grades, did well enough on my SAT, graduated 55 in my class of 682 kids and got into the college I had wanted to go to.

Being above average finally paid off. I was ready to put my skills to the test and challenge myself at a well-renowned university. I knew that college was a whole different ballpark. I knew I was going to have to change my study habits and definitely work harder than I did in the past. What I didn't realize is how hard college was actually going to be.

I wasn't prepared to have to stay up all night studying to barely get a C+ on a test, or a B on a paper. I wasn't ready for extremely hard graders and I was never taught how to truly read the textbook and grasp all the material from it.

I never knew what it was like to skate by like every other student. I never knew what it was like to be average.

In the midst of my first semester of college, I realize now that I might not be one of the smartest kids around. There are people at my university that are brilliant and that really are geniuses. No longer am I the one who raises my hand because I always know the answer. And by no means am I even near the top of this class, but for now, that is fine by me. So what if now I need to get a chemistry tutor? If that will help me do well, I'm all for it.

As my dad told me last week, "If you were around average than you did fine. Besides, A+ is overrated."