   As the school semester comes to an end, I think we all worry and freak out over just what our final grade will be. Speaking from experience, this can be detrimental to one’s mental health, as some of us prioritize our grades over absolutely everything else in our lives. I have been guilty of this almost my whole life, no matter what school or grade I was in. I have spent hours and hours crying over the thought of me not making the grade I wish for myself. I have let my grades in school define my worth time and time again, but it needs to come to an end.
   We should not be letting how we perform in school determine our own self-worth. College students are already one of the highest percentage groups for mental health problems, including depression and major anxiety. I can promise that being too hard on ourselves for the grades we make in school, even when we are trying our hardest, is making our mental health even worse. I am not saying that we should not care. Grades are really important and putting our energy into school can open so many doors and opportunities for us. But when we start beating ourselves up for weeks based on two points we didn’t get, that is when our expectations of ourselves start controlling our lives. That is when it gets toxic. Â
   So as finals are rapidly approaching us, I want us all to promise ourselves we will try our best, but if our best does not quite meet the high expectations we set for ourselves, we will not let it hurt who we are. I am going to work on this really hard this semester, as it has been one of the hardest semesters of my life based on things I could not control. No matter how this ends up, we must remember our grades do not define us.
Â