Reaching a Peak!

Dude! I graduated with a PhD this past weekend. A degree that is terminal. That means no more after. Lets break it down why its so significant to me.
Before I even started school, I was called the r-word just because I am dyspraxic and could not hold scissors like all the other kids. I may have not understood the words or heard them directly, but I know I felt that energy.
While most of elementary school went by just fine, after I moved, I started getting bullied and getting called stupid by my peers. This happened around my autism diagnosis so I was in the middle of an identity crisis and was being told I was certain things by professionals that did not exactly match my experiances up to that point, so I ended going along with what others told me about who I was. It was easier than trying to prove them wrong or show a more complex version of my being. This got me suspended from athletics once in high school due to poor grades so I learned how to just keep my head afloat. Luckily, I am a good test taker, so I managed to get conditionally accepted into college.
Then in second semester of freshman year, I freaked out and had a crisis of direction. Trying to hold on, I went to the career center looking for guidance. Bad advice. As I broke down in front of some random person, I was met with "maybe college is not for everyone?" Are you flipping kidding me!?!? Along with other situations, its no wonder my second year at college ended being my worst academic year ever.
Thankfully, I was able to create a goal. That goal was to join a fraternity (where majority of my friends were apart of). These guys showed me the path that I needed to achieve this goal and along the way found my passion in Kinesiology.
The rest is history but these parts played a significant part of who I am and why reaching the peak of something like academics was very important to me.