The day has finally come to view your final grades. It could go really well, or really bad. You could lose a scholarship, and if you lose your scholarship, you could have nothing to drive your motivation, and then your grades could deteriorate, and you could fail out within the semester, and then you’ll have to move home and sleep in your bed sheets that you got when you were 13. Just kidding, but it’s a scary thought.

Personally, I knew this semester wasn’t going to work for me how it has in the past. Harder classes, teachers that had zero sympathy for the fact that you’re trying to get a job after you graduate. Or go to law school. Even though you may still have a GPA above a 3.0, even getting one letter grade below what you thought can kill your confidence.

For example, last night I logged on to see my final grades. I knew I had two A’s, 2 B’s, and there was one that was kind of up in the air that could go my way. But it didn’t. My sweet teachers really stuck it to me this semester, and then call it a “learning experience.” I can learn just as well, and still get an A for all the work I put into the class, just saying. Can you tell I’m bitter?

So, I log in, and I see one of those A’s that I was banking on, and it’s an A-. I didn’t even know that teacher had a +/- scale. She loved me, I didn’t understand why she wanted to destroy my GPA .06 points like that. But she did. Little do you know, a +/- scale is sometimes a fate worse than death.

So, I ended up with the worst GPA I’ve had since coming to school. Now, of course, it is still a very good GPA, and I should be thankful for even having the privilege of going to school, much less an out-of-state of school.

But I’m the kind of person that sees one small crack, and the whole picture is ruined. I’m so type A that I have trouble falling asleep. So, one A, an A-, and 3 B’s. I was good as done in my eyes, at least during the first 15 minutes of my shock. I’m trying to go to law school, this GPA can only go up only a few half points; this is the GPA I am stuck with. The GPA that I have to live with, and beg to get into law school with. This is the stupid thing that I have cried over, and worried over because getting a stable job that you actually like these days is nearly impossible. I’m not going to get into law school, might as well start thinking of a back up.

Those are the actual thoughts you think, or at least along those lines. Students think those kind of thoughts, and beat themselves down to where they think a fraction of a point will determine your future. And then I realized- I’m not the only one who thinks like this.

Kids everywhere are suddenly measured by one test, one letter grade, one point in their life where it determines the rest of it. I can’t help but think, that’s insane.

What employer wants a kid like that too? A child that literally cries over a test or class, which probably did next to nothing in teaching you the real life lessons you will need to know in the business world.

Since when is that okay? I am enough, a letter grade doesn’t define me, I am as smart as I think I am, I love to learn, and a decimal point isn’t going to define me.

Except, it does. In this age, college students believe that if they don’t have this or that on their resume, they might as well just quit trying. And I just don’t see how that’s next to okay.

We should measure students on a lot more things than how they test. Because some people don’t test well, and some are just so much smarter than the test they are taking.

Maybe I’m saying all of this because I am bitter, but if you are a teacher that tries to fail students while on your power trip, or an employer that truly defines a student on their A in Statistics 203, well I just want you to know that you are not liked, or respected, as much as you would like to think. A good person does not do that. And I really do hope that you take a second look at the students, because we are not supposed to be defined by one piece of paper, with 12 point Times New Roman font. So stop training us to think we are.