“The result will never betray the effort.”
The quote above is something I personally disagree with. There have been many times in my life where I gave my maximum effort, but didn’t receive what I expected. Best example, exams.
I can’t even count the number of times I stayed up late at night studying for an assessment. Reading and understanding the notes, applying them to practice problems, seeing how this would affect people (or even me) in the real world. And when I finally take the test, and get the marks back, I get a mediocre grade.
83. 79. 70. Even a 61 one time.
I remember not sleeping at night, replaying the moments in my head, trying to see what I missed.
But, I’m not the only person who went through this.
One of my close friends barely gets enough sleep in a week, and complains to me about how he was up until 3 AM the previous night, finishing up assignments that were due. My younger friends, many of whom are in their last year of middle school, describe their difficult times studying, and their uncertainty towards high school.
After hours of listening to their hardships, and some thinking about mine, I knew I had to write about it. So here I am.
A central node I realized is that we’re all suffering from one certain emotion: stress.
Stress is the main culprit. It’s the final boss to our adventure game-like lives. In fact, 45% of students, both grade school and university, report suffering from pressure and anxiety. That’s 135 million people. And out of that, 61%, who are between 13 and 17, are going through academic stress. In terms of population, that’s almost 82.5 million teens.
82.5 million?
That’s more than twice the population of Morocco. And there are many factors that flow into this: excessive classwork, uneven schedules, lack of sleep, many things. But there is one certain point which I believe does the most damage to a student: the strain on grades.
This is a pretty normal thing for a teen, as he or she is expected to do well in school. Even if not taught, it is almost a unanimous belief that having good grades will make you succeed academically. This is why many set themselves to high standards, and slowly shift their lives around this focal point. And when one bad, or even mediocre grade comes out, tensions ensue.
I’ve seen friends who woe over a 96, as they’re constantly told to always have straight A+’s. I can imagine how they feel when they go home, and the first thing they hear are the questions their parents ask about grades.
Look, I’m not complaining that there is something wrong, but I believe there needs to be a change in mindset. It’s a pain to see a buddy beat himself up because he couldn’t match up to the grade he wanted, it really is. But my question is, why worry that much if grades aren’t even the most important thing?
School is a place to learn, not a place to compete. I like to think of it as a place where you spend seven or eight hours using your brain, which is a function slowly becoming lost with things like social media these days. It might be boring, but at the end of the day, the useless stuff you learn today can be the backbone of what you learn tomorrow.
Sure, grades can determine some things, but I seriously object to the fact that you need to have good grades to be happy. I can come back home with joy, even if I got an 80 on a test.
Why?
Maybe I talked to a friend I haven’t seen all day. Maybe I had a good conversation. Maybe I listened to some good music, and felt determined to come back the next day with enthusiasm. Look for the meager things in what you do at school, ‘cause even the smallest actions can have the biggest impact on who you are.
Grades are numbers.
So why are we so stressed about them?