It's become more and more obvious to me as this semester goes on that I've become something of a grade whore. And I was the complete opposite during high school, my freaking SPECIAL PRIVILEGED KIDS ONLY GEE AREN'T WE SMART high school, so believe me, this is a surprise for me too.

The practical, logical reason for this is that I'm heavily considering majoring in International Studies (I don't want to say it's set in stone b/c that's scary, but I'm definitely heading in that path) probably with a minor in Chinese and maybe a concentration in Asian Studies. And if I decide to follow that track, I'll probably (eventually) want to go to graduate school at someplace like Georgetown's School of Foreign Service or other highly competitive places that are basically feeder schools for state department jobs. So I'm guessing overall GPA probably matters more for me than it would someone who's planning to enter the workforce right after undergrad school?

Though the much less rational reason is that a lot of my friends here are grade whores too, whereas my closest friends in h.s. were more laidback with grades (which was NOT that typical at my old school esp. amongst the Asian females, but I guess we were just that crazy rebellious.) My two closest friends in my hall, DHB and a girl I'll call NicoNico, are both currently straight-A students (prob not for long, but hey). And even though my current grades are great, they're not as great in comparison. Even the fact that I'm on Merit List was made not as great ever since I found out that every single Asian I know is on that list. I didn't think I would be the type to be so susceptible to this kind of "peer pressure," though at least I think it's a mostly positive kind of pressure since it's self-motivated. It's not like I feel ashamed of telling people that I got a B+ on a paper, but I'm not completely satisfied with it anymore, whereas in high school I definitely would have been.

Though I guess at the same time I should try to not be quite so obsessive as, say, DHB, who worries and frets over a take home Bio quiz that he gets a 99% on. That boy worries me over how much he worries. -_-;;

EDIT: Oh and btw, Chinese is busting my nonexistent balls. I hate being forced to speak Chinese on the spot because I'm so bad at it, which is what my TA class in particular makes me do everyday. But I know that people like me only get good at speaking languages through this kind of intense suffering, so I guess I'll try to get through it.

说中文让我的脑子疼死了。 :(