[melioris]

This is exactly what I did in high school and most of college. It really wasn't until my second year of grad school that I got disgusted with myself and the huge opportunities I had wasted by doing the just enough to get by, or to satisfy others expectations of me. It wasn't all roses once I got my shit together, but after a few years of holding myself to my own standards, my research went places that I never would have been able to achieve if I had just skated by or done enough just to satisfy what was expected of me.

I am not trying to be a pretentious asshole, I just feel like I was really fortunate to get a lot of opportunities throughout my life. And I wasted most of them, which I am quite regretful about. I am regretful not because of how things turned out but because I wasted a lot of opportunities that were never offered to other students, and maybe if given the opportunity other students would have capitalized when I didn't.