“I don’t care whether you get one hundred or not, but I do care about your attitude towards your academic performance.” This was what my mom had always told me since I was seven years old. At that time, I was happy that my mom would not care about my grades because I did not realize my mom’s real meaning. As I grew up, I understood more and more about what my mother was trying to teach me.
American History had been always a real challenge for me in my junior year. Since I had not even learned my own culture’s history well in my native language, it would be impossible for me to learn another country’s history in my second language. Before I took the class, I already imagined that studying history in English would be hard for me. However, the actual situation was more awful than I had imagined. At the beginning of the term, I didn’t even understand what the teacher was talking about in class. In order not to lag behind, I tried my best to take down notes in class and look them up after the class. It was really a hard work. When I saw a C on my history midterm, I can’t deny that I was almost about to give up. However, my advisor told me, “Well, Tweety, I know it is hard for you. However, I just want to let you know that I believe you can do it and it is all about the attitude.” The talk actually woke me up. I told myself, “Yeah, it is about attitude. It is about what I want my history grade to be. No one can really help me with the difficulties I face; it’s mostly up to me.” Therefore, I held a really positive and aggressive attitude toward my history learning and finally got an A.
As one of the international student ambassadors, I also helped the new international students by sharing this belief. A freshman girl came to me after seeing her midterm grades, “Oh my God, Tweety! My mom will swim across the Psacific Ocean when she sees my grade.” I told the girl the exactly the same words that my advisor had told me before. I took myself as an example to let her understand that she should not really be concerned over her grade right now, but her attitude towards studying. I believe there are still ways for her to change her grade as long as she holds a positive attitude towards her learning. All I want to say to her is, “I believe you can do it and I am waiting for your good news.”
In my opinion, attitude is way more important than intelligence and abilities; thus, I believe profoundly that a positive attitude is the key to success.