One day. One grade. One assignment. One mistake — doesn’t define you!
Anonymous
I have been there.
The chase for the perfect Grade Point Average.
GPA 4.0.
A’s. More A’s.
Grades that have hardly shaped my personal and professional life.
Recently I had a candid conversation with — say Mr. X (for fragment of your imagination).
He was really upset about the grades he received for the module.
He was seemingly beating himself up for one meager mistake that costed him an ‘A’.
I was really trying to listen to him and at the same time also trying my best to figure out the right things to say.
But, perhaps he didn’t need anything coming from me.
Maybe he ONLY needed a listening ear to pour his full heart and that’s it, and not someone sympathizing, not someone hardly helping.
Looking back, I wouldn’t have felt any different than what he was going through. For, I am in that same race too. The race that I know is very expensive to participate in. The race that I know is seemingly significant but practically are mere numbers.
Tonight I want to swallow this pill once again, “GPA 4.0, or straight A’s is not the dream, is not the only way, the dream m.u.s.t be something else!”
The purpose must be progress. Not a transcript.
Your identity must be your virtues. Not grades.
Your dream must be fulfillment and appetite for more responsibility. Not A’s.
Your hunger must be competence. Not 4.0.
Namaste.