Being in college is hard enough, between homework and exams and trying to find time for yourself it can be very stressful. But what I have learned is that we have been caught up in the idea that our GPA defines who we are. I do care about my education and I make strong efforts to make sure that is known, but sometimes it seems like school is consuming most of my time. I find it hard to find time to even sit down and just enjoy the peace and quiet without having to stress about another assignment/exam coming up.

In a way I feel like our generation has created the idea that if your GPA is not a 3.0 or higher that you are considered to be not good enough. Is that what college is really about? Have we as students come up with the idea that if you don't have a good GPA that you have failed? We should never feel that way, we all have our own way of learning and for some learning material may come easy and for others it may require extra work.

Your GPA does not define your intelligence. Kids who have 4.0 GPAs are at the top of the food chain in college, making the others feel "dumb" and "not good enough". We put them on pedestals and make them seem like they are more intelligent than they really are. But i'm tired of hearing that people who have low GPAs are not considered to be smart.

I will admit, as a student who struggles with memorizing facts and taking test, this label puts me in a spot were I feel like I am not good enough. All of my life I have struggled to keep my grades at a level where I could succeed. I have spent multiple hours doing extra work that was not needed in order to understand the material that may came easy to others. But I have learned that no matter how hard you try to understand something, there will always be someone who is better than you at that and that is okay.

Not everyone is good at taking test. In fact the majority of college students have test anxiety and that can affect how well you perform on the exam. For me I'm a visual learner. I learn way different than most students do because I have disability but I don't let that stop me from trying my hardest. Sometimes I look at my GPA it makes me feel a lot dumber than I really am. With the pressure of college there comes guilt. We feel like we should have studied harder for that exam and we would have done better. But no number can define how intelligent you are. It is just a number. That will not matter 2 years down the road. What will really matter is how hard you tried because that shows that as a student and as a human being you are capable of achieving your goals.

We all have strengths and weaknesses. Some kids are better at school than others. But don't let that affect who you are as a person, or make you feel any less intelligent than you are. Look at yourself in the mirror and be proud of the person that you are, you have made it this far and you have never given up. I know that I deserve to be where I am today academically, because I have made it this far. I will not stop until my dream of becoming a Social Worker becomes a reality. Your mindset is what gets you to where you want to be.

So the next time someone tells you that anything lower than a 3.0 is not good, just remind yourself that their future is not necessarily going to be better than yours. It just means that you took a hard class and it pushed you out of your comfort zone. A 4 point scale is not who you are. You are who you are and no one or no number can ever validate that.