Feeling a bit embarrassed about my 2:1

Hey everyone! I got a 2:1 as my final degree classification, with an average of 68% overall in Biology.

Although I know a 2:1 is still respectable I can’t help but a feel a bit embarrassed by it? Most people that I know (who I’m connected with on LinkedIn) are posting about getting firsts, and I know I wasn’t that far off it makes me feel ashamed of my grade, like I’m not as smart as I thought I was.

I got two A*s and one A at A-Level so I guess I feel like I’ve taken a step down or at least that’s how others will view it perhaps. I averaged at 70% at the end of second year so thought that a first wasn’t unreasonable to aim for. I think maybe I’ve made being intelligent too much of my identity, like all my friends would just tell me that I’m really smart and intelligent, and so would family, but now I feel like I’ve lost that and people will see that I’m not as smart as they thought I was.

I’ve got a master’s offer at UCL that I can still do with my 2:1, so my grade is not really stopping me from that, I guess it’s more of an ego thing. I really want to do well in my master’s to make up for the 2:1 but just wanted to hear other people’s advice or similar stories of feeling better about grades? I just can’t stop kicking myself and saying I should’ve done better even though I already worked super hard. I know this is really trivial but it’s been on my mind a lot recently 🫶