I am a perfectionist. I have always been the girl that would spend the time putting extra work into an assignment because I knew I could make it better. I wanted people to see my best effort. All the way through high school, school was easy. I made 100% on nearly every assignment I turned in and I rarely had to study more than a few minutes. I was always the "smart girl" with a 4.0. It was a reputation I grew to identify myself with and I thought it would always be that way.

The hardest thing I ever had to learn was that college is different.

My very first semester of college was the end of my perfect 4.0. Not because I was lazy or because I didn't go to class, but because my best effort still wasn't what the professor considered an A+. But here's the thing...it was still my best effort. This tore me up for a little while and I remember being so stressed out for days. However, I soon realized that just because my grade wasn't what I had hoped, didn't mean that I wasn't smart.

A grade is just that...a grade.

You are much more than a number or letter on a transcript. You might have gotten a C, but that doesn't mean you weren't smart enough for an A. Not a lot of college students actually have a 4.0, but that doesn't mean they're not smart. Some of the most intelligent people I know have a 3.5 and they're happy with it because they know it's their best effort. You cannot judge someone's intelligence based on a couple papers and a final exam. What that grade doesn't tell is how many other difficult classes you were taking at the same time. It doesn't tell that you're in five different clubs and doing over 300 volunteer/work hours on top of school. It doesn't tell that you have severe test anxiety before every exam. It doesn't tell that you're dealing with so many other things.

Your grade does not define who you are.

Just because you got a C, doesn't mean you are average and just because you got an A, doesn't mean you are a genius. All that matters is that you do the best you can and work hard to accomplish your goals. I promise you that degree is going to look exactly the same even if you end up getting a couple bad grades. That grade might be a bump in the road, but you don't have to let it keep you from getting to your destination. In 10 years, when you're working at your dream job, none of it really matters anymore.

So instead of being known as the "smart girl," I'm known as me. I'm known for my personality, what I'm passionate about, and the people I surround myself with, not my grades. I have so much more that defines who I am. I am more than a grade.

So are you.