I am a nerd. No doubt about it. And I am talking about the typical textbook, academic nerd type of nerd. And that is one quality I will always pride myself on. There are all kinds of different nerds. I wish my intelligence was purely natural. I would say to a certain degree it is, but I have had to work hard to get where I am and to receive the grades I do. A lot of college student nowadays are using the phrase, "My GPA does not define me," but I do not always agree with that.

Does a single test grade define you as a person? I would say no. But, overall, I do want people to judge me by my GPA because I am proud of it. Not because I was given those grades, but because I worked hard for them and earned them.

I do feel as if your GPA can be a reflection of a lot of things, one major component being your work ethic. If you are taking classes where your grades are determined solely on one huge exam, I'm sorry, because that is unfortunate. I am not an engineering or chemistry major, but that does not diminish the precedence in which my GPA signifies.

There is this mentality in a lot of college students that as long as you are passing and getting a degree that you are OK. In a lot of situations, this may be true. In many fields, networking is everything; it holds more value to know have connections with people that can give you the in. I would like to believe that regardless of my connections, my hard-earned A's will get me somewhere in life. If not, what is the point? I struggle with this idea a lot, and I have heard from a multitude of people that I should take the pressure off of myself because it is not going to matter in the long run.

Then why even go to school?! To after four years of time and energy you earn a piece of paper that deems you qualified to enter into the working world after all you really have done was slid by earning the bare minimum? Maybe I am nerdy for feeling this way, but that bothers me immensely. If I am going to spend the time, energy, and on top of it all, the money to be in college, I am going to get the most out of it. I want to soak up what I am learning so that I can be the best in my career field and so that I can put my knowledge to meaningful use. But most importantly, I want to use my college career to develop my work ethic.

I want people, future employers most importantly, to look at it and think "she is not perfect by any means, but she really worked hard." So yes, in that sense, I want my GPA to define who I am.