Time and time again I have become victim to my GPA. It has consumed me, ruined me, controlled me, and even led me and my decisions. It is so easy to become caught up in that golden 4.0, but in reality a 4.0 is not everything it is cut out to be.

To achieve a 4.0 is great, and it is an achievement that we should be very proud of if we do so reach that mark. However, a 4.0 is merely a couple letters and numbers on our resume, which doesn’t amount to anything really beyond that.

Recently, I attended an interview prep course where I learned how to be effective in responding to interview questions, and how to be confident when asserting myself to a possible employer. But even beyond all of the talk about interviews, I left that presentation with a burden lifted that I never knew I had.

The speaker (an employer) just made the comment that even when he is examining resumes for potential college or recent grad personnel, he really doesn’t apply all of his attention towards the applicants GPA. He wants to make sure that, yes, this student cared about their grades, but that this student also put in an effort to give back to their university rather than someone who only cared about what they could gain.

He wanted to make it so crystal clear that we had no confusion as to what he was talking about.

He said that we as a society and as a generation have become so obsessed with having perfect GPA's that we have forgotten that college is a time of being involved and meeting your lifelong friends...that it isn't a time that we should spend having our nose constantly in a book.

I am not sure if even me reiterating that point stood out to you as much as it did me, but I was just so overwhelmed with that thought. To think that here I am trying and trying to attain this GPA that in the scheme of things isn’t something I should kill myself over.

And if I am being honest, I have always been that person who cares way too much about grades. I have always gone out of my way to make sure that I put them first before everything else…and that simply just isn’t okay anymore.

I found comfort that an employer, someone who will be examining me in the future, told me to take a load off of myself and to actually take advantage of these moments.

I know all too well that grades can be master in which we become their slave, and that is the truth for way too many other students than myself.

There has to be a divide that we create in order to declare that we are free of this captive. That we are more determined in how can we grow during this crucial time of our lives, rather than become consumed with something so stuck in the present.