Thoughts on academic success
Academic success means different things to different people, which I find strange, because I do not think it should. To me it should mean trying your best.
Everyone has limits, whether mental, physical, or spiritual, and those limits move. My best four years ago is not my best today, and I expect to say the same thing four years from now. So “do your best” is not a softer way of saying “get an A.” If you give a course everything you have and finish with a B, your limits have moved, and the next course in the sequence is where that shows up.
I am about to test this. I transferred from a small community college, and I am taking honors algebra and honors analysis this fall. If I do not get an A I will be genuinely disappointed. But the disappointment is not the measure. The growth is.
So really, I feel like to be academically successful at UCLA, I just need to be challenged. If I am routinely pushed to the edge of my capability to reason, it will not take long before I leave my past self in the dust. So although good marks on my transcript are an important part of my goal, I need to remember that the real value is in the struggle. If I can leave UCLA having pushed my limits mentally, physically, and spiritually, then I would consider my time at UCLA to be a success.