Noa Rosenberg It’s something that we are all familiar with. Wading through the sea of freshmen all getting their bags from their lockers, spending an awkward amount of time trying to locate your name among the hundreds of others; finally finding it to look in and see the quiz, test, or essay that you have been waiting for with a grade written in pen at the top or circled boxes on a rubric that, to some, seem to mean everything. But, where does this come from? It seems that especially these days as the end of the semester approaches, people are more attached to these wooden boxes than ever. They worry and worry about grades. This is understandable, I mean, Latin is a hard school with high expectations. Many of us also face academic pressures from home and a lot from within ourselves, and yet, I have to ask: why? High School is theoretically supposed to be a time to experiment and gain new independence, but still students today are subjected to immense amounts of stress and pressure. Some of this is good. It pushes us to do better, but when is it too much? It is agreed upon that teenagers nowadays are under much more duress than former generations. What used to be enough now seems to be barely enough to get by. Nonetheless, we could all benefit from a new perspective on things. Life is long and there are many opportunities to prove your worth both in and out of school. As the semester comes to a close, remember not to let one grade get you down and next time you find yourself pacing beside the mailboxes, take a second to look at the people around you and not just at the papers.  ]]>