Thanks keithlore, veranadine, and Liara Covert
Liara: It wasn't about a scholarship, because I don't have one. It was about doing so well that I wouldn't have a chance to screw up. I started out the semester very fearful of messing up. I also wanted to do very well because I know high grades gives you more freedom of getting your job of choice. What I want is to get into the type of career I desire very much, the type of career I should have gone for when I was 18, but instead went and got a degree in something much "safer".