Why I don’t want a 4.0 and you shouldn’t either

It’s easy to imagine that the singular goal in college is to get a 4.0 GPA. For many, this is the case – but not for me.

In many ways, I don’t want a 4.0 and I won’t try to get one.

This might seem like me trying to justify why I don’t have an excellent GPA (2.85 for the win). However, I’ve thought about this for quite some time now, and think I’m ready to share it with the world.

In high school, I was a classic overachiever. I was lucky in the sense that school came fairly easy to me, but I also worked my ass off. While I wasn’t staying up until 3 am like some of my classmates, I beat myself up over every imperfect grade and felt that my grades were a reflection of me and my worth as a person. As you can imagine, this lead to a pretty hefty downward spiral. When dealing with the fallout from my self-destruction, I realized the root of many of my problems was my perfectionism.

When you’re a perfectionist, or just obsessed with perfection in the general sense, you can’t focus on anything else. My entire being was consumed with thoughts of never being good enough. Since I was striving for the impossible, I would always fall short. In some ways, I loved that this meant I could always hate myself for not being perfect. I could always beat myself up for something, since perfection is truly not achievable, no matter how hard you try.

After my disastrous end to high school, I decided to take a year off from school altogether. With the support of my parents, I moved to San Francisco on my own and started working. The year quickly became an exercise in imperfection. Often I was broke, I had to rely on public transportation to get around the city, I had 5 roommates, 2 jobs, and I certainly didn’t have control over every aspect of my life.

Much to my surprise, I thrived. I embraced the messiness that came with a lack of perfection. Chaos became my norm and I found peace in it.

When the time came for me to return to school, I made myself a promise. I swore I would never put my GPA above my mental health again. To me, a 4.0 represents perfection, and it is not something I want to achieve. While I try my hardest in school, I also make a point not to miss out on the other things that make college great. Whether it’s the chance to go to an incredible party, watch my friends play a sport, or simply take a walk in the Arboretum, I will not sacrifice those moments for a few more points on a test.

Recently, an employer questioned me about my grades, saying that they weren’t very good. I respectfully disagreed. I told him that my grades were a perfect reflection of my time so far at college. The C I got in Astronomy fall quarter represents the broken collarbone I had from trying out rugby. The A+ in English winter quarter represents my passion and love for words. I am not ashamed of my GPA, nor will I apologize for it. Furthermore, if a potential employer is not able to look past a less than perfect GPA and get to know me as a holistic person, I’m pretty sure it’s not somewhere I’d want to work.

I hope there is a lesson in my story for everyone. I hope that today you can be a little kinder to yourself, take a step back and realize there is so much more to you than your transcript. Join a club, try something new, meet cool people. I’ve only got 4 years and I intend to make them count.