Epiphany that's not really an epiphany: I am not a good student. Never have been. Not any way you look at it. I'm not your classic, stereotypical out of control, Dennis the Menace-esque fool who eggs the teachers cars and cheats on tests and doesn't do homework. I have my own formula of not-doing-school-well, actually.
I was very well-behaved in the classroom in elementary school...well for the most part. I was spacey as hell (some things never change) and bombed my way through Math and Science classes but hey, again some things never change.
In middle school I was fairly wild. I did wonderfully in Language Arts and Social Studies and was an angel child in those classes. In all of the other classes, I was not okay. I was el diablo. In Science in 8th grade, for instance, my teacher Mrs. Gallo a portly woman with magnifying glasses for spectacles and a withering stare as sharp and intimidating as all hell. Well, she put me next to some girl in that class who I had a bit too much fun with. We befriended each other, and we were far too similar so we screwed around 24/7. I wasn't about to pay attention in some class that I was utterly uninterested in and could care less about. We sure had fun though. But damn were we LOUD! We were virtually banshees. So, she hit the room and moved me to the other side of the room. Quiet girl in class gone NAUGHTY! I was complex I suppose haha.
And I started cutting class in middle school too...got caught of course. With my luck. 
But my grades were pretty all right (that's dreadful English) in middle school. I was a fairly good student. Not great. 
Then high school came and I just barely got by. I was purely an average student---on the whole. Below average in most classes...except for English. Even History was kicking my ass. In AP Gov I got a D on my paper when she referred to my writing as "(myname)Speak." Not a compliment by any stretch of the imagination. I was outraged. I worked my ASS off on that paper. And the teacher was SUPER HOT! Then I started to despise her because I totally felt so confident with the material I felt like I knew what I was talking about. But she made me feel stupid. That's another thing. I had a slew of god-awful teacher who sculpted me into a massively self-loathing, cynical indifferent student. 
And of course as the high school years winded down me and my good friend would smoke and drink outside on lunch breaks...and I made a "statement" sophomore year when I just stopped doing anything and claimed it was because I was proving grades mean nothing.
I still firmly believe in this philosophy. That doesn't mean you shouldn't work hard though. I definitely work my ass off...at things I love. And work enough to get by in what I don't love. I do try that's for sure in every class. But I think grades are a fucking crock. Academics truly is. That's why I'm gonna be a teacher. I'm gonna turn it over on its ear. When I find my success, which I will in some way, shape or form I will be able to say "Look kids! You don't need straight fucking As to get along fine in life!" etc, etc. It's so true though. Don't get me wrong though I was such a fool throughout the years and college has been infinitely more difficult than high school due to countless predicaments and barriers that have arisen but I can only hope I get out of it okay/alive with a GPA that won't send my Mom through the roof. And that won't make me feel guilty as hell that they paid for my college tuition.
School has been the bane of my existence for my entire life and has been like a fire rising from the Earth that keeps me repeatedly bounding into the air to latch onto a dangling tree branch.
I am almost done though...with all of this shit. That's why I yearn for the real world. No fucking grades. No GPA that haunts me and makes me feel worthless. That does NOT define me whatsoever!