Graduating when the odds said you wouldn’t is a real achievement. Don’t let anyone shrink it.

Achievements get compared to the easiest version of themselves. Finishing school while working a job, carrying things at home, or with nobody expecting you to, is a different task from finishing with a clear run, even though the certificate looks identical. People who had the clear run will sometimes tell you it was nothing much. They are describing their own experience and not yours.

Say the whole thing to yourself once, including everything it was done around. Keep one person nearby who knows that full version. When somebody shrinks it, you do not have to argue, and you do not have to agree either.