It's more than the academics

Getting good grades is important.  Good grades are likely to be an indicator of strong organizational skills, hard work and dedication to the endeavor of learning and growing.  Nevertheless, I’m learning at Andover how grades do not represent who you are or how other people will see you.  It appears in middle school, grades were more “defining” to my identity.  It felt like I was known for my grades and my reputation was built upon how many A’s I got a term.  

Thus far in high school, it’s been very different.  Grades are far from defining anything, in fact, most of the time, academics onlys plays about 65-70% of a day.  The lasts 30-35% I believe is made up of who you are in the grade, what you do, and how you present yourself in terms of student engagement, the role you play in a class etc.  There are just so many more assets that are assessed and shape one’s reputation.  

I’m finding how important strong social skills are.  I’m running for class representative and I have not only to write a platform which is sent out to the entire grade, but I have to gather 125 signatures from my class of 220 students in order to even qualify for the running.  This process in itself is forcing me to put myself out there and talk to people whom I may not be familiar with.  And social skills I consider to be quite different from academic success.

This week, I’ve had 4 assessments and the funny thing was that the pressure I normally felt throughout my middle school years of test taking dissipated during these tests. I walked into tests more confidently and the ironic thing is that I probably spent less time preparing for them, practicing and trusting active studying and recalling.  I think it’s because I don’t feel the pressure of having to do well, which would otherwise risk my reputation.  

My understanding: It’s more than the academics that define who we are.  I am nurtured in an academic environment where there are more way to shine.  

[I wrote about this briefly in the past]