What true realization about yourself changed your life? How?

Question

puberty will not be a respectable answer :P

I'm a curious little gurl :P

Answer 1

Up until I finished the 6th grade I thought that school was hard and that I would never do well.  I stuttered.  An achievement test was given at that point and the results changed my life.  It turned out that the teachers at my school had each told the next that I was dumb.  My problems at school had been that my teachers had low expectations of me and only saw what they expected.  The result of my scores on the test meant that I did not take the sixth grade over again.  In fact, I started the seventh grade taking all advanced track courses.

I am now an old man.  I now realize that I have to trust in myself before others can learn to trust in my abilities.