get off my back

I was just reading my grandsons blog about being bored with school. It brought back a memory of when I was in school.
In my family there was me and my older sister Pat. She skimmed by and really struggled with school. My folks acted like whatever she made was OK. I came along and supposidly was supposed to be pretty smart. Snort snort. They would really ride me about my grades and it really bugged me. One day I was really bummed and popped off at my girlfriends house about it. No one ever said, but I am sure she told my folks.
School was boring to me and I hadn't really tryed very hard just for spite because I felt they were trying to make me make good grades.
I don't remember exactly but I began to notice that my folks had stopped pressuring me about my grades.
It was what I had been spouting off about but somehow when it happened and they no longer bugged me about it ,it kind of left a void, leaving me without something to pop off about.
Now that I didn't feel like I had to make good grades just to please, I began to find out that learning wasn't so bad. I began to pay attention in class and found out I really could understand and in some cases actually enjoyed myself. I kind of liked making good grades. I wanted to make good grades for me. I even took some of the classes that were considered hard to just prove to myself that I could do it.
I actually look back now with a sense of pride at what I learned.
I am so thankful for parents who did the best they could with such a rebellous daughter and for "getting off my back" and letting me learn for myself how good it feels to make good grades because I wanted to.