Sh*t I'm glad I did

6. Took a chill pill

No, I'm not referring to drugs or any other illegal paraphernalia. I'm talking about that figure of speech used by an annoying person trying to get you to calm down.

via polyvore

Let's go back in time a little bit, to when I was a straight A student at P.A. middle school. I was obsessed with getting good grades, and I worked (and worried) my ass off in order to be the student I was. It paid off in that I got all the superlatives for the best in every subject on the last day of eighth grade. Fast forward to high school and things were a bit different. I went to a tough school (anyone familiar with IB? ha), and I found that I wasn't the smartest kid there anymore. I also discovered that making straight As wasn't going to be as easy as it used to be (and in fact most of my high school career I made a B or 2 *gasp).

As I became involved in other things besides school, like sports and volunteering, I started to realize that life wasn't just about school or studying. But more importantly, I realized that I wasn't perfect and that that was ok. I'm so glad I learned this lesson in high school instead of college, where I'm sure many people do. I've seen people make them selves sick because they are mentally and physically exhausted and psychologically unprepared for a letdown. This is no way to live. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's ok to slack off, but I am saying that it's ok if you don't get straight As, as long as you try.

In general I've always been kinda a high strung/uptight person, and college definitely mellowed me out (I've had several people over the years remark on the world of good it's done me). I can't say what exactly did it, but eventually I got to the point among the mountain of reading I had to do and realized
"I can't do it all."No matter how hard I tried it seemed like I couldn't really catch up. So I learned to prioritize and speed read. I doubt that this is something that my former uber-uptight self could ever had allowed but it's been a valuable tool/asset. Of course I've lamented the fact that I didn't have a better GPA, but I'm also glad that I didn't drive myself crazy in the process of trying to achieve an unattainable perfect.

Or our fear of not being perfect! via google

My advice to anyone is this: chill out. Calm down. You can't do it all, and while it may not always be perfect, you can make your college experience (or life) more enjoyable by accepting the fact that you aren't perfect and that you aren't always going to be the best. If you want to read more about working smarter not harder, click here to visit one of my new favorite blogs to find out more!