Perhaps everybody was right. Maybe I am too hard on myself. I don't tolerate myself making any mistakes. Failure is a moment in time. Success is a lifetime. I think I see it the other way. I've always been ashamed of the fact that in elementry school I had to stand on the wall during recess twice in all 4 years I was at that school. Once was in 1st grade and once was in 3rd grade. Both times because I forgot my homework. There were kids in my class who were always on the wall instead of playing and it didn't seem to bother them, but it crushed my world. I was in tears. In third grade I didn't get a star every week all year long for perfect behavior. I missed one week, and I think that too was because of a homework assignment. In middle school I never got a warning slip. Never got in trouble. In high school I never skipped a class. Never did anything wrong. I had to be perfect. Why? I don't know. I guess I figured that if I ever did anything wrong then poeple would look at me differently and I'd loose everybody's respect. Senior year I followed everything my parents told me to do. Never stayed out past when I was supposed to be home. When they told me I couldn't TP houses with my softball team because if I got caught then it could hurt my chances of getting to West Point, I believed them and didn't throw one roll of TP that night. I want to blame my parents and say that they scared me into believing that if I ever broke any major rules, then it'd mess up everything in my life, but I don't know if that's really the case. Do they actually deserve that? I don't want to say that they do. "What if I stumble? What if I fall?"