Week 8

We had midterms this week, and I was thrilled to discover I passed with flying colors: all A’s! I was most proud of my grade of 96/100 on the advanced grammar and composition course for the 300 level. This sentiment was for several reasons: I am officially in the 200 level, or second year of Spanish, so taking a 300-level course is in itself a challenge, but to really excel on the midterm felt like all my hard work is really paying off. Secondly, I scored the highest grade in the class, above the nine others who are placed in the 300 level. Excelling encouraged me to keep pushing myself and not let my level hold me back from trying to do the best I can.

I also had a tricky decision to make this week: whether I wanted to take any classes as pass or no pass. For context, as of this term I hold a 4.05 GPA, something I pride myself on. I’ve always kept a 4.0 grade average, and I’d like to keep it that way. I felt nervous to take all of these difficult Spanish courses without pass/no pass. I really didn’t want my GPA to take a hit during my last term of college. Doing well on my midterms, I reckoned with why I enjoy and intend to excel in my studies. For one, I like to succeed. Who doesn’t? I’m also quite competitive. Not in the sense that I want to do better than everyone else, but in the sense that I want to do the best I can in the things I set out to do. I reminded myself of this, and decided to take all my courses graded.

It felt like it would have been easier to do pass/no pass. I could have slacked off a little more and had more time to go on trips or otherwise. However, this wouldn’t have aligned with my values academically. I want to do the best I can; in order to do that, I have to keep challenging myself. I want to learn as much as I can, and having this goal pushes me to keep studying hard and mastering different language concepts to become fluent. I’ll keep working hard through the end of this term, and hopefully if I try hard enough, I’ll earn those A’s.