I wish someone had told me...

I wish someone had told me about the reality of high school. The truth of how grades would translate into scholarship money didn't quite hit me until I started looking at colleges. I'm not ashamed of the GPA I have, but it would have been nice if I had tried a little harder so that it would help me out in the future. It seems like I actually did get the warnings, but I was too focused on external forces in my life to realize that it was up to me to actually make everything right. I figured everything would figure itself out eventually, and that I was a decent enough student to be average. I didn't think I could actually do great things. I thought there was always going to be someone better than me and I shouldn't bother trying being better than them. I'd constantly compare myself to the "smart kids". If I got a B- on a test, and someone else got a B on the test, I probably wouldn't strive to do any better because that's what I figured my place would be, because they were smarter than me. As time went on in high school, I felt I gained more control over what I could be doing with my life. However, I still had to make up for the times where I didn't feel like I had that control. I just wish I had taken the warnings more seriously. I might be having a bit better luck with scholarship and grant money in my college searches. Overall, I know things are in my control and I hope to improve all of that in college.