All her life, she had heard nothing but praise. Her mother and father had oohed and aaahed over every portrait and landscape that she produced. Now, she saw them for the immature scribblings that they were.

She had walked into her first day of class proud and assertive. She was an experienced artist, after all! Now she blushes to think of the way that she had bragged to her friends that she was merely going to school as a formality.

Have you ever had that happen? A dawning realization that you are not at all what you thought? That you have thought too much of yourself, that you still have much to learn? It is a disturbing discovery to make. Most people when confronted with this discomfort, set it aside and continue on as they had been, since the alternative seems to difficult to bear. Let yourself be one of the few, who, when confronted with their own failings, chooses to embrace them and move forward.