As some of you (who receive work email from me) might be aware, I have a rotating set of signatures at the bottom. They're meant sometimes to be funny, other times to be thoughtful. Sometimes my sigmonster is apparently prescient:

The awareness of the ambiguity of one's highest achievements (as well as one's deepest failures) is a definite symptom of maturity. - Paul Tillich

I got my cognitive science paper back today, after writing my last exam. My first exam was slightly above class average, my second slightly below, but my paper was well below class average. In fact, I've never received a mark this low on a paper before, save one from a prof who thought I lied to him about why it was late. (Hung up the phone on me, as a matter of fact, after he called me at home to wake me up.) And even that was a C. I passed the paper - 56% - but my pride is hurt. It's a righteous mark, although a bit tough, it's deserved.

On the other hand, that was enough to officially pass the class, so the exam I just wrote is gravy on top, and I figure I'll get about the same on this exam as the last, so my final grade should be about 70-75%. Not the honours average I'm used to, but still respectable, especially considering I'm working a fulltime job simultaneously. (I'd say 40+ hours a week like I usually do, but I've slipped this term, I'm only at my mandated 35 or so.)

As far as failures go then, this hardly qualifies as deepest - and my deepest failures are ambiguous at best, and currently irrelevant beyond their contributions to my character and my qualia, to steal a word from this course. The course was good, I learned a lot and thought a lot, and that's the point.

For somebody who advocates getting rid of marks altogether, I seem to put a great deal of stock into the ones that I earn - I shouldn't.