I believe in the achievers.

I don’t know where I would place myself on the scale of average student achievement. I don’t quite feel qualified to call myself an overachiever or an underachiever. My poster of the periodic table in eighth grade was good, but it didn’t light up like the other girls. My notecards to study for the test in ninth grade were extensive, but they weren’t color coded and arranged in alphabetical order like the other kid’s were. My essays were good, but not drafted on the first night of assignment and though I really do enjoy reading, I did not finish the novel the first week it was assigned.

Through this self reflection I have come to the conclusion that although I do slide slightly toward the overachievers, I still cannot call myself one of them. I am simply your everyday achieving student.

Is it a bad thing? I wouldn’t say so. This doesn’t mean that I get bad grades or don’t do my homework. That isn’t the case at all. I am happy with my scores and my life. I just take a different route to get to those scores and that happiness.

While watching an old episode of my favorite show, “Greys Anatomy,” I heard a line from an emergency room patient who was supposed to be graduating as the valedictorian of her college that day that really spoke to me. It reminded me why I live the way I live. She said, “I was supposed to be starting my life today. All I’ve ever done is school and today I’m supposed to be graduating and starting my life.”

Before hearing this quote I was getting pretty down on myself for not staying on top when out sick and upset that I let myself begin to drown in makeup work. Then I remembered. That girl in the car accident could be me, not sure if I’ll make it out of surgery or not. What would I be thinking? Would I be concerned about not having had a life, or relationships or crazy nights out because I’ve been stuck worrying about how I’m going to make up all my work? No, I’d be happy because I’d worked hard in every area. I got good grades, made good friends, build great relationships, and made the best of what I had to work with.

I’m proud to call myself an achiever. Proud to say that I work hard. I may not be as academically geared up as that other girl, but I’m geared up to have a life and be happy with what I am and what I have. I believe in the achievers, who choose not to be the top, but to do the best they can with the life they are given.