School is harder than it seems. Not only is it hard to keep up with your grades, but with the people around you. I’ll admit, I am not a competitive person at all. However, recently I have found myself almost trying to compete to get better grades, and I don’t even know why. I don’t even get bad grades; I just can’t help the discouragement when I see that someone got a better mark. I constantly exert this pressure upon myself to the absolute best that I can, and most of the time it isn’t even to impress myself; it’s to impress my parents, my peers, my friends, my teachers and my newest companion, universities. All this pressure to do good makes me more anxious than usual during school, that causes me to perform poorly on tests. However, after all I’ve learned throughout my 3 years in high school, it’s that you must let all the negativity go. Every bad mark, every negative thought, every piece of discouragement that you have ever been told can be turned into motivation to encourage yourself to do better every day.

I particularly remember getting a 55% on a math test. That had been the first low mark I had received on a test this year. I am part of the STEAM program in my school. In truth, I don’t even want to pursue a career in the STEAM fields: I despise science, math and robotics. Math is arguably my worst subject in school, but all my friends (who are all in STEAM) are amazing at it. Whenever they got a good mark, of course I would be over the moon for them, but I often lied about my mark when they asked just so they didn’t think that I was stupid. Since then, I have decided that I will no longer do that. I have come to realize that math is just not my best subject, and that is completely alright. Failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing, making mistakes is good. Making mistakes can help you grow if you learn from them. Use your failures and insecurities to motivate you. Use them to drive you to do better and keep on trying. If you fail, try again. Keep on going.

Sometimes it is hard to have a positive outlook on grades in school. Below I have included my main tips that I have learned to try and apply more to my daily life at school.

Pay Attention to Yourself: One of the biggest problems that I have personally had in my high school experience is comparisons. I constantly compare myself to my friends, but I have realized that I must focus on myself and my growth. One thing that you must remember is that in the end, you must go to University, you’re the one who’s going to have to do the test or finish that project. Independence and focusing on yourself is key. Do not compare your grades to anyone else’s, don’t compare their project to yours, or their essay to yours. You must trust yourself and trust that you know what you are doing. If your friend performs better at science than you, that’s alright. You focus on yourself and keep looking for that passion of yours.  Everyone is on their own path.

Remember That You Can’t be Good at Everything: It is alright to have a low mark in a subject. Everybody has something that they are good at. If you haven’t found it yet, you have got to keep looking. Even if you aren’t amazing at something but you love to do it and are passionate about it then that’s amazing! Passion is an essential attribute of success. We often believe that we must be amazing at something to love it, but we don’t. If you are doing what you love, then I’d say that you’re successful.

Your Best is Enough: Always perform to the best of your ability. Even if you don’t like the subject, do the best that you can. If you give it all your effort and you still don’t get the mark that you wanted at least you’ll know that you gave it everything that you had. If you fail, you must keep going. Look at the