I was in honors math, until a teacher in high school told me I wasn't cut out for it. I ignored the teacher's recommendation and kept myself in honors math for

I was in honors math, until a teacher in high school told me I wasn't cut out for it. I ignored the teacher's recommendation and kept myself in honors math for the rest of high school. I ended up taking AP Chemistry and AP Calculus in high school and passed with As and Bs. Despite all of this, when I got to my freshman year of college, I didn't see myself as someone who would be interested in math. My grades plummeted to an average 2.0 because I had no interest in the cookie-cutter mandatory classes I was essentially forced into. I decided it would be better to hang out, get high on drugs and party all year instead. In the summer between my first and second year, I grew to resent college culture and decided it was time to focus on learning useful things. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I felt that math and physics, being pivotal to everything else, were the best choices for someone who wanted to defer making a choice. At that point, I was in the straight-A mindset, but I was someone who was very familiar with bad grades. I took an advanced mathematical physics course during that second year while I was taking Introductory Physics 1. About half way through the course, I was set on getting a 2.0 and realized that maybe taking a senior-level math class while I was still in Physics 1 might have been a shitty idea. I told the professor that I'd probably drop the class if I couldn't manage a 4.0. I never dropped the class, and ended up getting a 3.5. Over the next three years, that would be one of the two 3.5s I got. The effort it takes to improve from bad to great is much lower than the effort it takes to improve from great to perfect. At one point, I thought I could be perfect, and eventually realized that perfect isn't worth it. Trying to be perfect at something will prevent you from being great at dozens of other things. I know this first hand and I missed out on a lot of experiences because I cared way too much about being the best in the silly little grading system.