More than just a number

It was junior year when I knew the pressure was on. There was a constant buzz over how many AP classes we were taking,
and if we had studied (or not) for the SAT.

Junior year, students get loaded with their first SATs and ACTs, and not to mention their first grab at AP courses. Junior year is easily the most important academic year in a high school career. But the pressure only begins there!

Once junior year is over, and you cry over your SAT score, it’s senior year. As I woke up a senior on the first day of school I was excited for a great year, filled with fun memories and amazing times. However, I was missing a piece to my senior year: college applications.

Senior year still holds the worry over GPAs and SAT/ACT scores. The pressure was only beginning to build. Every adult I spoke to would ask, “Oh, so you’re a senior now! What college do you want to go to?” It was like evading the college talk was impossible!

My friends and family had always pushed me to do my best in school, working for that GPA and studying for that SAT. It was as if these numbers were slowly beginning to define me. I was building myself up to be the best I could be, always doing what I thought my top choice college would want from me. Junior year was an effort to make a person I don’t even know, like me.

I thought about it over and over again. Both my accomplishments and college are important to me, and no matter what, my GPA and academic life in high school are a part of me. However, I can’t let that define me. Many people compare who has the highest SAT score, or how many AP courses they took in one year, but I’ve  realized that’s not what completes a person.

We are more than a number, a GPA,  an SAT score. We’re people with culture, experiences, and knowledge. We’re capable of the unimaginable. No number will limit me because I am more than that, I value myself more than that.

So to you, my fellow senior, junior, or anyone else for that matter, when you fill out your application, know that you’re not alone, we’ve all been there. We doubt ourselves and wonder if we’re good enough, but at the end of the day the only person you really need to be good enough for is yourself. Thirty years from now, you won’t remember what was on your college application because that doesn’t define or even begin to sum up the person you are, or the life you will have. You are the beginning of your future and we all have the potential to reach the greatest of goals we have set for ourselves, and those goals go beyond a transcript, an acceptance, and a number.