I attended the talk last week by Zachary Grobe about applying to graduate school. I’ve known since coming to Cornell that I want to go to graduate school, but the real implications of that have only floated in the back of my head, and recently it has hit me that, indeed, grades still matter, even though I really thought I’d be done worrying about those numbers when I graduated high school. Thursday’s seminar reminded me of the talks I would go to as an anxious high school junior and senior still discovering what it means to be evaluated as a “promising” student and, ultimately, member of society. It also reminded me of what little value such an evaluation holds to my character and in the long-term trajectory of my career.

It was a gentle and necessary push for myself to remember that little things I’m doing now can mean a lot later–be it on my resume or in a technical question on an entrance exam–and also that I don’t have to wait to do big things right now if I want to, such as research and projects. Attending this seminar also made me a bit more introspective than I have been for while about what type of contributor and student I am, what my strengths are, and what I want to do with them. Overall I enjoyed the seminar and I think now that I have a lot of thinking to do.