Maroon Weekly

by Autumn Kushner

In everyone’s life, there are times when they can progress forward into becoming the person they can be and times when they can not. It is very important to remember that some days, and at some points in your life, you will be too tired to push upstream and you just cannot do it. For me, my goal over the past few years has been to get healthy and whether I had the right intentions or the wrong ones, I had no idea how much of a struggle it would take me to even simply get where I am today. This is the case for most people and I think it is very important to remember that big or small, C student or A student, appearances are always deceiving.

Everybody falls short in some area in life. I think the key to finding happiness with yourself is figuring out which area you can live with being sub-par in. Part of the journey of becoming a better person is shifting yourself through different spheres of insecurity and coming to terms with them individually. Often times it may seem like there is pressure coming from everyone around you. Pressure to be academically superior, to be sociable, to be sexy and rich and perfect. If you let it get to you all at the same time, most of the time you will either simply shut down and rationalize being inferior or let it get to you so badly that you become a depressed perfectionist.

Remember through all your struggles that everyone around you is struggling too. Maybe you are smart but have compromised your health in order to get into the graduate school of your choice. Maybe you have focused so much on your significant other, your family, or your job and are now on academic probation. Whatever the case may be, trust yourself to make the right decisions for yourself. They aren’t always the ones that society has laid out for us. It is very easy to judge someone who is not at the top of the societal food chain but for all you know, they are much happier where they are than you will ever be by trying to reach impossible standards. If a friend from high school decides that academia is not the way for her, then maybe it really isn’t. One of my friends from high school decided to not go to college and now runs a very successful car detailing business.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that measuring success should be by your own standards. If you can rest easy with a 2.0 GPA, I do not believe that it is bad to do so. School may not be what you are supposed to be doing with your life or you could be there to really learn material, not to make grades. If you would like a boyfriend or a girlfriend but school appeals to you more right now, that is no problem either. Social protocol is no reason for stress. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you are not doing enough and do not assume that they are judging you for what and who you are. And conversely, do not judge the people around you who may be thicker, academically challenged, or lonely. Sometimes no matter what people want, at the moment they do not have the energy to continue fighting the battle to the top.