As we were sitting in our English class this past week, a curious yet unfamiliar paper was placed in our hands and we finally realized it’s that dreaded time of year: the day class rank and GPA calculations are released. As some students run through the halls chanting they finally made it in the top ten percent, others already have their mommies on the line to complain to their counselors. And we are finding ourselves stuck in between. Perhaps it’s because we are reaching the end of our senior year when our transcript won’t help us much now, however, we are still wondering why students seem to be reenacting the “burn book fight” scene from Mean Girls over a summary of grades they knew they received.

That’s not to say we don’t understand because we have definitely felt the wrath of GPA and class rank calculations. And let’s face it- it’s hard to not get caught up in talks of which quartile you fall in and how close you are to the top ten, but it really does more harm than it does help in the end. Though it may seem hard at first to look past your grades because they do play a role in your future, those numbers are not everything. In fact, they are just a mere consequence of your actions and do not define who you are, nor indicate how smart you are or what you have learned. Though your classes do provide you with massive amounts of useful knowledge, the experiences you have in school are what will really determine who you are and what you can achieve. For example, we have learned so much more from newspaper than we ever could have in a normal classroom  and will takes the lessons and skills this class has given to us and use them for the rest of our lives. Neither of us would have been so aware of time management, dealing classmates in stressful situations or world issues without this class, even though it is not AP or dual credit.

So for those of you who are jumping for joy with your transcript thus far, congratulations, and for those of you who hope to improve, you can do it. Just always remember that high school is so much more than those numbers and that your experiences, and what you learned along the way, are what makes you, you.