<p>malgorium, thanks so much for posting your heartening story. If I may ask – how did your sophomore classes stack up against frosh classes in difficulty? Was the material considerably more difficult, or was your trouble mainly due to the lack of focus you mentioned?</p>
<p>I lovelovelove your comment about adversity and failure. I think a brush with failure can be healthy, because it teaches us that we can survive failure – the sun still comes up, the world is still there, you’re still the same person you were the day before. A good lesson to learn before the stakes are higher (e.g., job, mortgage, family), and probably a brand new experience for a lot of Mudders. Experience surviving failure ==> less fear of failure ==> greater willingness to take risks and push limits. And pushing our limits keeps them from closing in on us.</p>
<p>Kudos and applause to you for sticking it out and graduating!</p>