Marking period one ends after Teacher’s Convention weekend and first quarter grades for your classes will be entered into Genesis. As a junior, I can confirm that classes at our high school can feel very overwhelming. Pressure is felt from successful siblings, awaiting parents, and achieving peers all year long. Genesis can be manipulating, making students feel like grades reflect their academic worth. With first quarter grades coming in I have an antidote to your anxiety. 

It’s okay if your first marking period grades are not the greatest.

Sit, close your eyes for a second, and take a deep breath because your grades do not define who you are. For the next 75% of the school year you can show what you believe your academic potential is. All you have to do is relax and put in the effort to achieve your success. 

My first marking period sophomore year, I ended with grades I was not happy with. I was taking two AP courses, an honors language and an honors science class, all on top of dance practice. This balance didn’t work for me and with such hard classes that I was taking I went down a rabbit hole of shame, wishing I could go back and try again. I compared myself to my older sibling and her grades, and listened to my distressed parents. 

The trick I’ve discovered since then for success is something I’d always overlooked: good work ethic. There’s something in common that all of the students you consider to be the smartest have, and it’s the effort they put into their classes. The more consistent you are in your good working habits, the more you’ll find incredible results. If it works in athletics, it works in school. 

I remember being an avid procrastinator at the beginning of last year. With two poor class averages in my grade book my parents really wanted me to drop one of the classes but I didn’t want to. I loved my friends in the honors class that I would drop, and I really believed that I could work harder and do better for the remainder of my time in the class. I truly believed that if I dropped this class, it would even make my transcript look poor for college. 

While that all seems so relevant and truthful, what I really needed was to calm down.

I needed to sit, close my eyes and take a breath because yes, I could work harder and try to do better in the class, but what I needed was to drop the course, give myself a breather and watch my grades get better. That’s what I did. 

Dropping that honors class was crucial for grades last year because I took the stress away from myself caused by the outcomes I was receiving from the first marking period. I turned around, started again, and turned my C average into an A by the end of the year. I did what was best for me and adjusted my mindset about what classes are worth taking and how my worth ethic matters the most.

So please, let yourself understand that poor results can be changed. You are not the same person as the people around who make Honors and AP classes look easy, and that’s okay. School is about trying your best and learning how to push yourself to do better. So now when you look at your marking period one grades, know that now is when you’ll try again.