How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

In high school I was separated from my classmate simply because I was a tax write off for the school district I was in. They needed to fill a quota & I was the “lucky” winner.

What did I “win?” Four years of verbal abuse from my so-called “special education” teacher, being told that I shouldn’t go to college because even though I was multilingual & played first chair cello in orchestra. I apparently wasn’t bright enough to go to university.

What I also won was a tedious, humiliating parent/teacher conference twice a semester. Where they would talk about me as if I wasn’t in the room. These meetings would drag on for hours.

This lasted the longest 4 years of my life. It wasn’t until I got into university & blossomed in school that I realized how wrong they had been about me in high school. The university taught me that I was smart & could accomplish anything.

Was what my school district behavior warranted, no. But I was just a cash cow for them in those 4 years. They had to make my issues with math & science seem much bigger & grander than they in fact where. How has someone labelled you wrongly changed or altered your life?