If you cheated your way through every test, homework assignment, interview, quiz, application, and essay and became the most succesful (enter your profession of choice here) in the world, would you really have achieved anything?

My parents taught me at a young age the value of hard work. I learned how good it felt to look at a clean house when you knew that you had worked hard to clean it; they taught me how satisfying it is to look at a report card full of A's knowing that you had worked hard to get them; they taught me that shortcuts never pay off in the end.

Then I got older.

Deadlines got shorter, papers got longer, tests got more complex, and making the choice between hanging out with friends, going to United For Uganda meetings, or doing Latin homework became harder and harder. The option of reading Sparknotes instead of the actual book became more and more enticing; it became more difficult to keep my eyes on my own test during an exam I barely studied for. Basically, I came to Uni.

In the midst of all this temptation to cheat I would say that most Uni students that I talk to have maintained a respectable level of "academic integrity." We're not perfect; sometimes we read Sparknotes (sorry English department), sometimes we ask our friends for help on test revisions (sorry math department), but we don't do it on an extreme level (if that makes it any better), and we don't do it often.

But — of course — there's a problem.

For every Uni student who works hard at their homework, studies for their tests, does whatever extracurriculars that they can, there are those who have adopted the method of habitual cheating.

These are those who are unfamiliar with the idea that grades should be a reflection of how hard you work and study in your classes, not how smart your friends are.

Those who do not know how to accept bad grades when they deserve them.

For all intents and purposes, there are Uni students who don't study hard for tests, who don't do 5 gazillion extracurricular activities, who don't drive themselves incessantly, and that's perfectly fine, because they accept what they deserve.

If you study for five minutes for an exam over the last three months, don't expect to get an A.

In all honesty, it's understandable that sometimes you don't have the time or energy or motivation or whatever to study, and sometimes doing the homework looks like more work than you can handle, but just being real, life is stressful. We can't expect that everytime we get tired we can just be lazy and coast through every difficult stretch, because for every person who isn't willing to work there is some child somewhere who is.

Imagine getting into a university or college where no one is willing to help you out all the time and realizing that you don't know how to work hard or do homework or study.

Imagine walking across the stage during graduation and realizing that every A that you got was because of someone else or some form of cheating.

I don't want to sound like a teacher, or a wannabe moral leader, but how can you be successful when you've never really worked for anything at all?