Our age, weight, and GPA are all numbers known to define our generation. But why do these numbers, in particular, matter? Why does our age define our maturity level? Why does the weight on the scale define the type of person we are? Why does our GPA define our intelligence? Well, the answer is they do not. There is this misconception and fixation that these numbers define our value as people. But this misconception can be reversed, if we just put some serious thought into it.
Our age is simply just the amount of years we have been alive, the amount of time we have been on earth. This number is only meant to keep track of time and relevant only to know what number of candles to place on a birthday cake. Our age does not express what we have been through during our lifetime. Our age does not define the level of maturity we have reached. Sure, an older person is more likely to have seen and overcome more than a person in their early twenties, but this does not mean that the younger person cannot be as wise. No one should be judged or underestimated due to the age that they are. Everyone has their own wisdom, battles and intelligence that should not be defined by the number of years that they have been on Earth.
Our weight is another number that seems to define us. In actuality, according to dictionary.com, our weight is “a body's relative mass or the quantity of matter contained by it, giving rise to a downward force; the heaviness of a person or thing.” Nowhere in that definition does it say that our weight describes the type of person we are, the love we have to spread or the level of intelligence we have. But unfortunately, there is a fixation on this number on the scale.
This generation, along with others, is so consumed with how people look, their body type and their weight. People are judged by their BMI (Body Mass Index), their body type and their clothes sizes, which all basically relates back to the number on the scale. But why? No matter if someone is 350 pounds or 100 pounds, this number does not define them. It is about our heart, our personality, our drive, our love and our confidence that should truly define us.
Our GPA has unfortunately become a highly feared number that now defines us as both students and people. A GPA is a grade point average accumulated over the years we’ve attended a school. In other words, it is how well we scored on tests and graded assignments. This GPA is supposed to measure and weigh out our intelligence. But truth is, this does not actually display our intelligence at all. Some people are simply “better” at taking tests than others. Some are simply “better” at writing research papers on an assigned author.
This does not mean the others are any less intelligent because they can’t pass a test or receive an A on an essay. School and the grading systems that are intertwined have become about passing rather than learning. Most just study directly to pass the test, rather than absorbing the information and learning a lesson from it. A student with a 1.5 GPA can know just as much as a student with a 4.0 on a GPA scale.
Along with a student with a 1.5 GPA can be just as equipped for a job after college as well as a student with a 4.0 GPA. Tests, essays, and projects do not define us and nor does the GPA it creates. In school, everyone learns in their own way and has their own strengths and weaknesses. Intelligence is calculated by one’s self and what they can personally accomplish with their own unique skills.
Our age, our weight and our GPA are all just examples of these numbers that have come to define us. For what reason? These numbers do not measure our maturity, value as a person or our intelligence. Unfortunately, it is thought that they do. But we as a generation can change this unrealistic and dumb outlook on these numbers. All we have to do is let people show us who they really are and speak for themselves, rather than have these numbers speak for them.
