It’s been a long time since I posted, I know, but honestly I’ve been waiting for the inspiration I needed to write my next post. But today was results day for all AS and A2 students, so I figured it was as good a time as ever to blog about life and experiences.
As a teenage girl with a variety of social media outlets (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, you name it), I read teenage rants on the education system pretty much every time I go online. The reason? It’s probably the number one shared cause of stress amongst teenagers my age. We have rants, one liners, and recurring jokes on the topic, but all mediums generally come down to the same point: the education system has got us more concerned about the letters that we get on a piece of paper than whether we actually learn something.
Today was emotional and hectic and nerve wrecking and I witnessed a lot of reactions to results, ranging from one end of the spectrum to the other, and it really got me thinking about the point above. I’m not saying that the letters don’t matter, because they do; universities and jobs have to find some way of filtering applicants, but it seems that nowadays as students our grades begin to become the thing that defines us.
For example, I remember last year when I got my GCSE Results (It was a way bigger deal than this year’s results because it was my first proper results day and I swear I shook the whole way to school). The second I ripped open the envelope, before I even properly registered my results I was on the phone to my parents listing my A*s, As and Bs. Then before I knew it, I was texting family members listing my A*s, As and Bs. Then as I walked down the corridors out of school I can’t tell you how many times I recited my A*s, As and Bs to everybody that asked me what I got. By the time I left school that day, before I could even properly sit down and look at my grade breakdown, I could recite the number of A*s, As and Bs I got by heart. By the time I started sixth form, it felt like reciting my grades became as common as reciting my name. Without intending for them to, my grades had become one of my largest defining factors, and one of the first things I’d be asked about whenever I met someone new.
Like I said earlier, I’m not saying that grades don’t matter. Of course they matter. But, whether we do badly or we do well we shouldn’t let them be the things that define us. Don’t get me wrong, you shouldn’t use that as an incentive to give up and not try at all. Grades may not be what define you, but the amount that you try for them does. What I’m saying is that if you opened that envelope today (or any other day) and your heart sank a little, don’t let those letters ruin your morale.
If you aren’t happy with your AS results, the beauty of AS levels is how accessible the retakes are. If you want better, go out and get those better grades for yourself next year. And if you try again and do better, be proud! However, regardless of what you get, always remember that there is more to every single one of us than a few letters on a piece of paper.
Read, comment, and don’t take anything personally. Remember, we’re all still forming opinions. Byeeeee!
Still Forming Opinions... 