My personal tradegy and message to all students

Hello everyone,

I want to preface this with a warning to anyone like me out there. DON'T LET GRADES DETERMINE YOUR OWN SELF WORTH. I say this in light of recent events which have obliterated my sense of self worth and confidence. If you find your life parallels mine, get out of this mindset immediately or you'll end up like me! Now, this is my story which I believe to be a tragedy should it be made into a theatrical play.

The opening act begins with my senior year. I go into it thinking it will be easy. After all, I have only three classes, one of which is a low level elective. But I could not have been more shortsighted. In act 2, I discover that my best work is not enough! I get awful grades, and my grades sit at low Bs and low As, unprecedented for an all As student. I am, as you can imagine mortified! So I decide to put in even MORE effort, always consulting my professors along the way! For the third act and Finale, I work tirelessly on my senior design project. All the mental capacity I could muster is vested into one final project, along with the hope to secure a good final grade and send off for my senior year! As a bonus, there is a cash prize for this project! How wonderful, but I first and foremost wanted to put my best efforts for the grades, afterall I could not know what I was up against. At last, the day arrives for me to display my work. Once at college to present my work, I see much of my classmates have incomplete work or none at all. I was in the minority of those who completed on time. When it was my turn to present, the guest critiques were impressed. They had thought my project was successful even saying their criticisms were just nitpick. In that moment, I was not only confident in my work, but even get internally cocky! One problem that I overlooked, I did not include a cut plane in my drawing, therefore, it wasn't totally accurate. But after all presented, we were told to return to our desks as they decided the winner. Most of my classmates thought that I was the winner and I did too! But as we were soon to find out, I was not. At the moment when names were being called, I was ready to hear my name along with an applause! Alas, it was not me. The worst part? My professor let me know that had it not been for the missing cut plane, I surely would have won. Here I am now, constantly replaying this memory in my head. A reminder of my failure and ultimately what had demoralized me more than anything. I have failed my other finals as a consequence and I will likely end up with Bs.

Don't become me. Don't let this be your tragedy too. And don't let memories burden you forever. This is something I will never outlive and a reason for my misery.