Obsession

One of the many unfortunate things that dominated my undergraduate years of college was my near obsession with school work. Of course, I wasn't doing it all the time, there is only so much that could be done, but even when I wasn't, I was still thinking about and could never quite shake the feeling that I should be doing some at any given moment. How could that not drive me crazy, you ask? Well, in a way it did. I didn't go literally insane, but I think such obsession and narrow mindedness took a toll on my psyche.

With such an obsession, naturally, my grades were pretty good. Damn near perfect, in fact.

4.0 GPA

Summa Cum Laude honors

Nominations to every honor society you can imagine

But ultimately, it was hollow. One of the big things I found out once I graduated was how little people actually cared about such things. Everything I have, my job, my graduate school work, everything, could have been achieved if I had devoted perhaps a little less energy to my school work. I sacrificed pretty much everything and ultimately got nothing for it.

Of course, I don't believe that one should slack. Good grades are still a plus, but one of the things I realized in my year outside of school is that the world is much bigger than that. I learned that, regardless of how graduate school ultimately goes, I'm going to be just fine and I should take time to appreciate things in life that don't involve school. Relax a little bit. Will my grades be as good? Who knows, but does it really matter anyway if I'm not perfect all the time? It can really be a terrible burden.