California

I remember hopeful premed classmates crashing and burning all around me. These were kids who were straight-A honors students in high school, valedictorians even, with a lot of pressure on them to be doctors, engineers, etc..

Generally the professors were wonderful teachers, but the courses themselves were brutal. After the first midterm you'd leave the lecture hall surrounded by shell-shocked over-achievers who knew they were going to get their first "B" or "C" in a class ever, or worse.

My physics professor was a wonderful teacher in every way. His office was always open, he was always friendly... but his exams were almost sadistic. There was no way anyone could pass them by rote memorization. If a student didn't know the stuff in their gut they floundered. It seemed a third of the class didn't make it through to the end of the year and that sort of attrition was institutional.

As someone who was never a straight-A honors student I wasn't traumatized by the experience and managed to muddle on through, finding joy in the occasional "B+" or "A-"

I'm happy with my bachelor's degree. My wife powered on beyond that.

This story makes me a little sad. I used to be the sort of person who hikes alone in the desert, overnight too. My wife, who is a much more practical person than I am, didn't like that, so I stopped. Was she right?