A. B. C. D. F. All the minuses and pluses. What is our obsession with these degrading letters? I went onto facebook and all I could see was: my Crain grade went up! I got more than 100%!
What's the point? I listen to all these people freak out so much about their grades and about how much they deserve good grades. But do they really? Just because you take a challenging course does that mean you deserve to get an A? What is the meaning of an A anymore? Does it mean reasonably above average, or is it truly a mark of excellence? After all the whining about the grade in that class, everyone is so happy. How can everyone be so shallow? Is that all that matters to people? Letters? I've seen people forgo friendships, romances, community, religion, and family for their grades.
What are these people going to look back on in ten years? The good grade on one final or the lack of service to the community over the past few months. Sure we make excuses sometimes, but so many people are selfish in their ambition. And once you go to college all this stress doesn't even matter.
What pisses me off the most are the people who don't deserve their good grades at all. I hate to say it but many of my friends are lucky they are so smart. Nobody deserves higher than a C for barely paying attention in class. It frustrates me so much when people whine about their B+ in a class that they skipped or dozed off in.
Then there are the valedictorians. The obsessive. At least some of them. It's as if they lose their identity, their sense of self without their grades. In fact I am sure most of these people with high class ranks probably don't have much to say about themselves besides their grades. Except I discover that the dumb girl who I thought didn't deserve her 4.0 has an alcoholic mother. The stupidity of assumption. That just pisses me off more that there are people who get off with easy lives and worry so much about these stupid grades.
The sad thing is I am the perfect example of the people I complain about.
Hypocrisy.
"Sad Song" - Blake Lewis
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this is why i try to avoid facebook. it's become an arena where people brag and gloat. we should be thankful that we actually love learning as oppose to simply impressing and living up to standard.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that many people act like grades mean everything to them, but I don't think that it's complete shallowness. Saying such is a huge generalization of anyone who cares to try in school. We may whine and complain, yes, but what teenager doesn't in the form of friendly banter? I doubt your friends who "complain" sincerely believe that the grades they received are unsatisfactory or unrepresentative.
ReplyDeleteBesides, what's the problem with wanting to achieve something? Sure, it's much more self-centered to want to get good grades than end poverty, but just because we are passionate about one thing doesn't mean it's bad and that we don't equally or in some way think about what you may consider a greater good.
And for the record, every single person who posted statuses like that do extracurriculars for the community. Teaching children is my passion, Helen is an amazing swimmer and loves it, Mika tried her hardest to get into Columbia where she could be HAPPY, not so she could gloat about the school.
Furthermore, I'm sorry for having a 4.0 but I don't think that gives anyone the right to accuse any of my peers or me of not deserving it. So I study hard. I study so I can learn. I learn so I can teach. Is that wrong? I have something I aim for. Maybe it's different than your goals, but I can tell you I worked HARD for these finals and I have accepted with a smile all that I got, even the B in Gov.
And for Vanessa (I think you're Vanessa?)'s comment. The people who see our statuses are our "friends". We share our successes because we know our friends will support us and be happy, just as we would for them. No one tries to gloat in a demeaning way and I apologize sincerely if that was the effect. It wasn't the intention.
I'm sorry if this was negative, I just wanted to make my opinions known.
-Tiffany
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