There are different things people prioritize while at school. Some focus on clubs or sports, some focus on their social life, and some focus on their grades. There are different reasons someone would focus on grades, pressure from parents, wanting to get into top- tier colleges, but sometimes people pressure themselves to have perfect grades. 

When I started school and found I was pretty good at it, I developed a quick sense of satisfaction when a teacher graded something as an A. Over time I started to feel like anything that wasn’t an A meant I was failing. This dealt a serious blow to my self esteem and social life. 

I started to spend more time focusing strictly on my schoolwork and less on making friends, because if my grades weren’t perfect, then what was I good for? It made me feel horrible when my grade dropped, even if it just dropped to a B. 

As a younger kid, this made me have an overabundance of stress and no healthy way to handle it. This affected every aspect of my life and molded me into a person who didn’t care about anything that wasn’t classwork. 

It has taken me a long time to let go of the need for perfection, and the only reason I don’t stress as much is because I surround myself with people who understand me. I’ve had friends before who made me feel bad about myself when I expressed how I was worried about my grades. They told me I was overreacting because my grade was an A so I should just stop. Now I have friends who tell me it’ll be okay, because they understand that, to me, I’m a failure if I don’t have an A.

It is important to surround yourself with people who care about you and will help you become a better and happier person. Don’t let people who pretend to care bring you down because there are people who will believe and understand you.