Don’t Be a Perfectionist (In The School System)
This might be a very interesting topic, but I think I should talk about it. Being a perfectionist in the school system isn't the best because you are always weighing yourself down. I used to be one until I changed because I knew I was literally damaging my mental health.
You might be thinking about how I was able to change for the better, and I will tell you my experience in a bit, but first, let me tell you a story…one day, like all the other school days, my friends and I had a history test and right after, we would find our scores online. I then joined my friends, asking them how they did, and one of my close friends was disappointed in herself. In context, these girls (my friends) were like the top students and they also cared about their grades, which were even higher than mine. I partially did judge that a friend who was clearly disappointed got a 99%, while I got a 97.5%. Of course, as a friend, I told her she did great, and she said she did so badly. I, on the other hand, was happy to do this well, because I didn’t aim for 100%, I aimed to do my best. I can’t believe my friend was so unhappy about this and that she cared about her marks and grades so much. The school system has ruined some of us. That friend is super nice, but this weighed her down and these things are taking a toll on our mental health.
I know that some of you are struggling with this and I now am going to tell you how to help myself. I know this may not be something you want to try, but just try, because it’s for yourself. It’s so simple but mind-blowing. I let myself fail. That’s right. Obviously, I did not fail fail (like getting a 60 on a test), but I aimed lower and maybe lost a few percent on a few tests, but this experience let me make mistakes and I know that I put my standards lower I am not saying that you should put your standards, lower, but I am saying that this experience changed me. It made me look at the world/school system in another way where I wasn’t constantly worrying about my grades. Now, I wasn’t obsessed with always checking my grades and I tried my best, even if it wasn’t 100%. Yes, I put in hard work and I still did my best, but the thing that surprised me was that I actually did better in school (a few weeks later). I had more fun.
I hope that maybe some of you can learn from this. Marks don’t define you, and people don’t care about your marks, they care about the real you. Your teachers care about your growth, your friends care about who you really are, and your parents care about the loving person you are.