If someone would have told me that Steve Jobs, master of the universe, the father of smartphones, billionaire extraordinaire had a GPA of 2.65 out of a 4.0 scale… well, I probably would not have been taking all of these advanced classes.

It brings up the question: are GPAs and AP scores really make it or break it? Are they the be-all, end-all of our lives? Well, in Steve Jobs case, it was not.

We are in the day and age where college is necessary; a high school diploma won’t cut it anymore. And if students taking five AP classes and killing themselves over their GPA is any indication, then we are all starting to realize that.

Here we are in one of the greatest high schools in the state. There are certain expectations that need to be met when we walk through Lane classrooms. And there’s a conversation at a lunch table about how crappy all our GPAs are.

“School is hard, School is honestly really stressful especially if you have other things going on in your life. With all the homework, tests, college apps, and personal problems, it can become a lot for just one person, ” Jennifer Santana, Div. 674, said.

According to the American Psychological Association, in 2014, teens reported their stress level was 5.8 on 10-point scale, compared with 5.1 for adults.

“I don’t think I’ve ever made myself sick from having too much school work but I’m sure other people have,” Santana said.

Santana believes there is a certain amount of expectation placed on Lane students because of the notoriety of the school.

“I think people expect a lot from students from Lane since we’re a selective enrollment school. They expect everyone here to be extremely smart. When teachers say things like ‘but you’re Lane students’ or when my parents or friends say ‘but you go to Lane’ like they just automatically think you’re some kind of genius or that you have a 4.0 GPA or something,” Santana said.

There are the obvious smart people in high school. The kids who can ace any test without studying. A kid who seems like they have it all figured out. And then there are those who cannot look at their college application because it gives them so much anxiety. Those who make themselves sick with worry about getting that D in calculus up while juggling three AP classes.

According to a study conducted in 2011 by the University of California, Berkeley, the number of kids and teens being treated for depression has doubled in the past five years; a quarter of teenagers felt “sad or depressed every day for two or more weeks” at least once during the previous year.

Why is it so normal to talk about grades and how we are doing in school but so taboo to talk about what school does to our well-being? Why is OK to not talk about how school is running us into the ground? You see tweets on social media about students talking about how they are drowning in schoolwork.

I do not think I have had a recommended eight hours of sleep since entering high school. Everyone wants us to be something in life, to see us succeed. But is their picture of success us awake at three in the morning making flashcards or doing math problems or finishing a lab report? Since when did academics leap over sleep or mental health?

Why is it that Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States and beloved by many, ranked 506th out of 688 students in the University of Delaware’s class of 1965 is still so successful?

Why is it that Elizabeth Holmes — the youngest female billionaire in the world — who revolutionized medicine, dropped out of Stanford to pursue her dreams?

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates were Harvard dropouts.

Charles Darwin left school at age 12.

Princess Diana failed all of her O-level examinations (exams given to 16-year-old students in the UK to determine their education level). At age 16, she left West Heath and briefly attended a finishing school in Switzerland before dropping out from there as well.

Why are we so damn worried about GPA and school and grades when these people all turned out fine (cough, sorry Diana).

“Not everybody has the best grades and that shouldn’t mean whether or not you can get into college. I don’t have a great GPA and that doesn’t mean I’m stupid,” Margarita Murillo, Div. 668, said.

No one is saying school is not important. We are privileged to live in a country where we can go to school without being gunned down or kidnapped. We do not have to fight for the right to be in Lane’s building.

All we are saying is tone it down. We know that everybody wants the best for us. We know all the worrying and the questioning is for our own good. But we know who we are. We know what we can handle. Let us take this one step at a time. Let us pursue our creativity and curiosity and ambition. School is not everything. We got this.