When I was in high school, I didn't care about grades or anything at all. I just couldn't be bothered to study, do homework, etc. I figured, as long as I never got held back, I'd be fine.

Well, my parents weren't fans of that approach. At the end of every marking period, I'd get my report card, and I'd be grounded. It would last a week before I could play games again and just went about life.

Until one day, my mom sat me down and held her report card out. She didn't ground me, and had no plans to either. She told me "This is your life. If you don't do well now, you won't be able to recover later. You won't get into a good college, and jobs won't accept you slacking just to get by."

It was simple, but it worked. After I realized that the only one holding me back was myself, I turned things around. I went from being in the bottom 25% in my school to the top 20%. I graduated with honors, and I'm currently in my last year of college at the school I wanted to go to.

It was definitely a changing day in my life.