“I’d always been an overachiever. I graduated at the top of my...

“I’d always been an overachiever. I graduated at the top of my class in high school. I got straight A’s. I got accepted into 14 of the 17 colleges that I applied to. But when I got to Harvard, everyone around me was just as smart or smarter. My grades fell, and suddenly I was no longer exceeding expectations. All that external validation that I’d become accustomed to suddenly stopped. And I crumbled. I felt lost. I learned that I hadn’t formed an identity beyond making people proud of me. So I left school for a while and took a hard look at my life. I learned to cope with failure. I learned that it was OK to rely on other people and ask for help. Eventually I went back and graduated. I’m still not exactly sure who I am. But I’m working on it.”