I'm posting this just because I had to get a whole ass pep talk from my mom last night about this. I did pretty terribly in highschool/running start and then quit community college for two years, but last spring I went back, started getting nothing but 4.0s, and applied to UW as a transfer. My first quarter was brutal but I managed to get a 4.0 gpa which meant a LOT to me because the classes were all pre-reqs for the capacity constrained major I'm about to apply to. This quarter...has been brutal in a different way. I accidentally went four years without taking a math class (and I was already bad at math, I passed my last math class by like, 1-4%) and found out I'd need to take another math class before applying to my major. So much fun! Unsurprisingly, even while putting in a lot of time and effort, I'm not doing great.

It can be really, really frustrating to put so much time and effort into a class you're still not doing well in, and I know a lot of y'all might be feeling that frustration right now. It can feel like all the stress and work was for nothing, but I'm here to remind you that at the end of the day, it's fine. You're going to be fine! I know some classes are more important for our majors than others (my math class just needs a 2.0 or higher and doesn't factor in to my acceptance to my major) but regardless, one fucked up grade once in a while is not going to be the end of the world. Even if you're looking to get into a capacity constrained major, grad school, or whatever, it's not going to ruin all of your plans and it doesn't say anything negative about you as a human being!

Lots of UW students are, much like me, a bit neurotic about grades. At the end of every quarter I see posts like "I got a 3.4 in this class, should I off myself? Should I drop out and go work at McDonald's until I wither away? Should I go build a bunker in my backyard and live out my years there to avoid the humiliation of getting this grade?' and I think posts like that have potential to make people feel even worse about their actually low grades. Even if you fail a class, you can retake it, you can adjust your plans, you can figure out something that'll make things work for you. It's not the end of the world and as long as you're putting the work in, that's what's meaningful and that's what's going to get you the place you want to be. I've accepted my fate and plugged the grades into canvas, and I'm finally at fucking peace with the fact that a 65% on my final will get me a 2.5, which is almost an entire grade point above my last grade in a math class. I'm fucking patting myself on the back for that, and you should pat yourself on the back for your hard work too!

Good luck on your finals friends! And even if you don't do great, it's not the end of the world. Your efforts aren't going to go unrewarded forever, and it's an accomplishment in itself to keep yourself afloat in college. Much love!!!