If you’re anything like me, simple day to day life can cause a whole lot of stress. Ever since I was young, all I wanted was to do everything perfectly all the time. Every assignment had to be done perfectly and exactly the way the teacher wanted it, every sport had to be played perfectly and basically every other aspect of my life had to be perfect.

Perfectionist was my middle name, and it felt I would never be able to shake that self-given title. If I got below a ninety-five percent on an assignment, or didn’t get a “good job” note written on my tests, I would immediately go into panic mode. Had I done something wrong? Why wasn’t I performing my best? What can I do to be perfect? All of these thoughts and questions raced endlessly through my mind, never leaving room for anything else.

In middle school, I got into the nasty habit of freaking out whenever I didn’t understand something or didn’t do something right the first time I tried. The more and more I thought about it, I realized that I was my own worst enemy. My parents were always supportive, telling me to do my best, even if that isn’t the top quality work I wanted to produce. My teachers and coaches always told me to calm down and take a breath, or that I needed to mellow out more. My personal life was sinking into a black hole, and I definitely felt like I had no friends sometimes.

It took a lot for me to come to the realization that the heavy world I felt on my shoulders was put there all by myself. The highest expectation from me was set by myself. I tried so hard to be everything for everyone; the perfect student, the perfect team player, the perfect friend and the perfect daughter. I wanted to be every version of myself that I could be just to feel like I was pleasing everyone.

In the end, it just became exhausting. The truth is that you can’t be everything everyone wants you to be, and you can’t even be everything you want yourself to be.

Even in my short time here at De Soto High School, I’ve realized that not everything can be done perfectly. I’ve learned to deal with the fact that I got a B even though I tried my hardest to get an A, or that sometimes I have to miss things to get other things done. Even better, I’ve learned that the value of hard work isn’t the same as the value of a 4.0 GPA. Hard work means a lot more, and it’s a skill that carries further on in life. Coming to terms with the fact that I can’t do it all was liberating. Now, I don’t freak out when I forget about a quiz or didn’t get an A on my essay. That’s just life, and realizing that lifts the weight of the world off of my shoulders.