How to Loosen my Grip

Describe something you learned in high school.

In high school, I learned something I never expected, how to loosen my grip.

In my first school, I was always at the top, just like in elementary. Being part of the top 5 felt natural, almost like a role I had to keep playing. I studied hard, stayed focused, and carried the quiet pressure of maintaining that place.

Then life shifted. Because of family circumstances, I transferred to a new school. It had a rule: transferees couldn’t be part of the academic ranking. I remember how deeply that disappointed me. It felt like something I worked for was suddenly out of reach, not because I couldn’t do it but because I wasn’t allowed to.

To make things more humbling, I was placed in the lowest section, where most students struggled with grades. At first, it felt like everything had fallen out of alignment.

But something unexpected happened there.

That class was fun.

For the first time, I wasn’t surrounded by pressure, I was surrounded by laughter, noise and a kind of freedom I hadn’t experienced before. Slowly, I stopped obsessing over rankings. I still did my best, but I wasn’t holding onto it so tightly anymore. I allowed myself to enjoy the moment, to be present, to just be a student not a number.

And surprisingly, without forcing it, things still worked out. I moved up to the first section in the following years. Not out of pressure, but naturally, while being more carefree than I had ever been.

That experience stayed with me.

Sometimes, when you stop chasing so hard and allow yourself to breathe, you don’t lose your path, you find a better way to walk it.