Assignment 19- Leighanne

The most important advice anyone has ever given me comes from my mom. She always says "Don't sweat the small stuff." Now, I have to say, I wish I had sweated the small stuff a little bit more in some ways. For example, with my grades. Whenever I get a bad test score or a teacher dislikes me and makes it hard to succeed, my mothers words echo in my head and I feel a bit better. The only problem is that those small things have actually turned out to be a big problem. My highschool cumulative GPA will never reach above a 3.2. It sucks. But at the same time, not sweating the small things has allowed me to look past them to the big things. Instead of crying myself to sleep like many other accelerated students (nothing wrong with that it just isn't my preference) I have always been able to see the bigger picture and realize that life will go on. The other day, on a tour of U.K., I was told by a highly acclaimed professor that many highly achieving students enter college and crash. According to him, this happens because they are not passionate, they get A's to get A's. I can rest easy knowing that will never be me. My mom has never pushed me to get A's just to be an A student. I have learned to push myself to be the best I can be and that often means getting A's (ya know, because I'm smart and all)  Therefore, I have found my drive from within and will carry it with me.
That got a little off topic but the point is that focusing too much on the small things will distract you from the larger picture. Appreciating the small things is good, this will get you through hard times, but worrying about the bad small things will just distract you from the beautiful big picture.