GRADES DOESN'T REPRESENT KNOWLEDGE

My name is Aisha and this is not my story. This is a story of a class fellow of mine when i was in a boarding school, who always struck me a little different.

When i was little, i was an average student in school, like every student i didn't like waking up in the morning and catching my school bus with my breakfast in the mouth but there is nothing a student could do about it.

I had a few friends because i was a very shy person but in my class there was a girl who was the topper of our class, she was always cheerful, attentive in class and she knew every answer word to word even the answers of math equations. All teachers knew her by her name which was "Maha". Usually toppers were considered mean or distant but she was very nice and friendly.

As i said that i was an average student so i got average grades but my family always told me to do my best. Well, they never told that with average grades i was doing a good job but they always supported me and cheerished my every little success with me and i thought every family is like that.

When i was in 8th grade, Maha got 2nd position in class not like me who couldn't even manage to get in top 10 but still i was happy and so was my family. At lunch time, i saw her crying in the classroom because she missed 1st position. I told her that she still got 2nd position which was also good. She said to me that wasn't enough and she should have gotten 1st position because her mother would beat her or scold her due to it. And i was totally shocked because i always saw her happy and i never thought her being a topper was beacuse of fear not beacuse of her ambition. Well, i didn't get the chance to ask her what happened after she showed her report card to her mother.

When i was in 9th grade, Maha and i were bench mates and as always she aced in every test. On her birthday she invited me to her house and i met her mother and all her siblings. I even talked with her mother for a while and she told me that she wanted Maha to be a doctor because she wanted to be a doctor but she couldn't due to some circumstances. And it kind of like hit me that my brother always told me, "no-one should put the burden of his dreams on his children and siblings because its his dream not theirs". So i asked her that what she would like to be and she said of course she also wanted to be a doctor.

After that day, i really wanted to ask her what she wanted to be and so i did. She told me that her mother wanted her to be a doctor and her path was already set so why she would think about it. And i told her about my brother's concept about it. And it kind of confused her thoughts because she didn't say anything about it but she seemed a little confused.

After sometime i realized that she was not as smart as everyone thought, she usually parroted most of the words without even understanding the meaning of the whole thing but she still managed to top again in the 10th grade. And i finally got in top 10 which was a huge thing for me, i was graded 10th if you are wondering.

Then we all started preparing for our college entry test which we all heard would be very hard. All college entry tests were based on MCQs(Multiple choice questions), from which few were exact book lines and most were numericals and general knowledge questions. Because i was an average student, i applied for every college i could. Maha was sure that she would get in the top college of our city so she only applied for that one. After one month we got the results and i couldn't believe that out of six colleges i applied for i got a call from three but unfortunately Maha failed her test by a single number.

After that she waited a whole year to give the test again and in that year she studied very hard. She couldn't learn each and everything but what she did learn that time she learnt it by heart and then finally she succeeded. Fiffty points were average passing marks and she got exactly fiffty marks. But in that one year she realized that she shouldn't have studied only to become a topper or out of fear of being beaten but to become a person who understanded what she was learning beacuse one day that knowledge would help her in becoming a good person of the society. Because one day if she actually became a doctor, she could not blame her mother for choosing her path in life for herself because being a doctor is a responsibility a person choose for oneself and she had given up that choosing opportunity by herself. But now life has given her another chance to choose for herself and by herself. So one day if she ever decided to become a teacher, she could tell her students the difference between parroting and actually learning something. So one day when she would become a mother, she could tell her children to study for their goals or dreams not just hers.

Now Maha is a Chemist not a doctor but she is happy and contented with all what she has and so is her family because they also realized that they shouldn't burdened their children with their own dreams and guide them with love and also discuss their matters with them and not just decide their path themselves.

And I am a teacher now and thanks to that i am not that shy anymore.

Conclusion: Every children must understand the importance of studying and its the duty of their parents and teachers to tell them but they should also tell them, "Aim for the moon, if you miss, you'll land among the stars". So be happy for the things you've got, don't be disappointed for the things you don't bacause you can never be truly happy if you look down upon yourself. And every family must acknowledge their children's hard work