A Personal Devo(n)tion for Success | Teen Ink

A Personal Devo(n)tion for Success

May 5, 2016
By zoëhornberger BRONZE, York, Pennsylvania
zoëhornberger BRONZE, York, Pennsylvania
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

“You’re Devon’s sister, aren’t you?” I distinctly remember that on the first day during my freshman year of high school that every single one of my teachers asked me some variation of whether or not I was related to the overwhelmingly successful Devon. I begrudgingly agreed, for I already presumed that teachers had already set high expectations for what I was expected to achieve. Even teachers that did not have my sister asked me this seemingly inconsequential question that automatically drove the expectations of my work higher. It was not like I had not planned on doing well in school, but being her sister made strive to be even better than her.


Throughout the school year, my standards only raised. I would earn an 85% on an assignment and feel as if I did poorly. I knew that other peers would be content with a grade that I felt was failing. Each grade that was lower than I wanted it to be wore down my sanity. The lower the grade, the later I stayed up at night to work where I would exhaust my body, my brain, and my mind. Each low grade on a test raised my nerves as to what it would do to my G.P.A. Each low grade on an essay forced me to improve anything else I write in the future by adding a few more details or revising just “one” more time. Each low grade slowly ate away my confidence and skyrocketed my stress levels. I thought that if I was not equivalent to Devon, I was disappointing everyone around me.


However, I began noticing that my teachers were completely satisfied with my work, my family was ecstatic of my success, and my peers thought I was delusional when I said my grades were “bad”. Even though I disagreed with them, I noticed that nobody else had placed any expectations on me. I was overcome with an odd sense of relief; my expectations remained the same, but I was no longer scared I would let anyone else down, besides myself. Now granted, for a marking period, I thought I did not do “well” when I obtained a G.P.A. above a four because I knew I could have done better. I know I am successful because I have forced myself into working hard and diligently, and since I strive to do the best, it shows through my grades. My success does not originate from the “Devon” likeness. My success originates from the self-imposed pressures I placed on myself in order to be even better than what I can achieve, not from anyone else’s expectations of me.



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