Throughout my middle school and high school years, grades just stressed me out. I spent most of my days fighting for straight A’s, and a good percentage of the time, I came up short.

It wasn’t that I didn’t work hard or that I wasn’t naturally “book smart.” Grades just weren’t my cup of tea. They drove me insane.

We spend most of our childhood and teenage years struggling to get the marks we need; spending hours of studying for material we will never remember just to see a big A on the top of our paper. And time and time again, we fail and feel as if we are nothing close to smart. But we’re wrong because each and every one of us is intelligent in our own way. We’re all different.

Failing and getting a big red circled F on the top of an exam are two different things.

I got F’s. Not a sea of them but enough to push me back to the ground. And although I couldn’t retake the exam or change the letter grade, I didn’t fail. I stood up, wiped off my shoulders, retaught myself what I struggled on and got my butt moving.

Failing is giving up. It’s taking that exam and throwing it away; not caring to remember a single thing. Failing is not trying ever. When I was younger and upset at how a grade turned out, my parents used to sit me down and say “Did you do the best you could?” I’d mutter something along the lines of “Yeah, I gave it all I had.” And they’d look me in the eyes and say “Then what’s there to be upset about? We’re proud of you. If that’s the best that you can do, that’s the best you can do.”

I think it’s silly that we spend all our time wanting the end result of the grade and not actually using the time to digest the content.

It’s silly that we define all those hours of studying and cramming into one letter. The school system is messed up at times but you aren’t.

The brain is a spectacular tool that no one else can replicate.

My mom to this day still tells me: “They can take anything from you but what’s inside the mind. They can’t take what you think and remember. It’s your brain that makes you unstoppable. Don’t let them near it.”

What you have in that brain of yours isn’t all written out and graded; marked with a circle capital letter in red pen. It’s what else you do that matters.

If you spend your whole life worrying about the final grade and not the content within that grade, are you really learning? Are you really living?

You are not defined by a few letters. You are defined by what you do outside of those letters.

Don’t let anyone tell you they are smarter or more gifted than you are. We all excel at different things. For those who school just comes easy to, I respect you. To those who fight for each and every grade they get, I applaud you. It’s not easy but it’s worth it.

There’s more than meets the eye and to those kids who find themselves struggling with the grade they can’t seem to push any higher, I’m proud of you.

You don’t need certain high up classes to tell you that. Take them because you want the challenge; you want to excel and give back. Not just because you want to look better.

What you do and what you say are two different things. Don’t ever make someone feel less than you. Some A students don’t work half as hard as some B students. Some of the most successful people weren’t the best at school.

It’s not always about the end result, for sometimes it’s about the climb. Keep climbing and work hard because the best you can do is enough. Trust me.