Grades Are Not My Label

I feel like venting my frustration right about now because I've just realized that I have wasted about 5 years of my life studying irreleveant things. Yes, in school. It's almost like school is my one common enemy, but truth to the matter, school is a waste of time. It burns you, defeats you, kicks you when you're down, paddles you, LABELS you. You become a no one when your grades are low but you become a well respected youngster when your grades are good. What the hell is that? Is society trying to tell us that those who make bad grades are 'low-life slackers', as once said? I'll have you know, Forbes Magazine does not think so, as I skimmed through it to the last page full of quotes admired by Forbes himself, "The world is made up of C students." I couldn't have said it better myself, actually.
Tell me; what's wrong with being average? Why do people judge us by the grades we make? Why do kids with 4.2 GPA's do so well in school but if I were to ask them 'what do you think of the arab-Israeli conflict', they wouldn't even know about the country of Palestine? I do not understand!

I'll break my situation down:

A= Excellent (By foreign parents' standards, the only acceptable grade)
B= You were so damn close!
C= Um, are you asking to be deported?
D= You've been disowned and/or shunned.
F= Why are you still alive?

So now if someone were to ask me about my GPA and I were to tell them that I have a 3.9 they would look to me in admiration and respect. If I were to go to the same people and tell them I had a 2.6 GPA, I'd be a failure, not worthy of anything, and I'd belong in community college for not trying and being a disgrace.

My question is: Why are grades so important? Why is school so important?
Answer: You can become someone without school and make it big. Without school, you might have a harder time, but that's it. Why is our intellect meausred in letters? The same letters that can either make us or break us? Am i stupid if I make a D in a class? No. It means I'm not interested and I cannot be forced into wanting to learn about crazy quations that science lunatics made up in their basements for fun.
Which brings this along; Why the hell am i learning about some math problem that is SO irrelevant? I mean, when you think about it, some weirdo decided to play around with numbers and told us that it will produce the correct amount of whatever is needed for a solution.
Really?
REALLY?

Anyways, all in all, grades are not my label. Making a bad grade does not make me dumb or irresponsible. It makes me worthy of something better and more interesting other than chemistry or mathematics. Unfortunately, the best years of my life when I actually have the energy to do EVERYTHING, I'm spending those days in school. I could be doing something that'll actually benefit me, like traveling around the world, but instead, I'm locked up in a facility with others by law. I hate some laws.

Oh well... I need to be 'ze mozt sook-cessful pear-son in ze worlid' and follow in the so called footsteps of my family and be a worthy relative/daughter/friend/person in general... and apparently, that'll only happen if I make the good grades that will label me.