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A Reflection on the Current School System

Like most students during finals week, I was obsessively calculating what I needed to get on my final to maintain or boost my grade. After reading a few blogs by Cal Newport about GPA and high school, I realized how my attitude towards school was more extrinsic than intrinsic. After reading his post about how unconventional straight A students ignore their GPA, I was surprised how I never thought this was an actual concern. His blog mentions how when students care too much about their GPA, not only does it put a lot of stress on the student, it also ignores more important goals a student should be focused on. What I got the most out of the blog post was how my ultimate goal as a student wasn't really the numbers; rather, it is to focus more on the learning journey. In other words, school is a learning process that is a cycle by learning our past failures and thinking about how to improve in the future. It is training ourselves to be stronger and more resilient (in my respectful opinion). When we only care about our GPA, everything we do is only for bragging rights or to make our parents happy. This doesn't make us happier as a person.
It is hard to not care too much about my GPA especially because I am surrounded by competitive classmates.
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