Criticism is Golden

As natural as it is to feel offended by criticism, I am trying harder to see constructive advice as an opportunity to improve. 

The other day I received my first essay grade for my Shakespeare summer course and I was a little disappointed at my score at first. 

This was me, bitter:

But I understand why I received a B-. My teacher assistant left me comments about my paper and she made good points regarding what I should have expanded on in order to have the paper that the professor wanted. I understood the question at hand, but I wasn't clear on how to answer it, so it does not surprise me that I wasn't able to turn in an amazing paper.

I find that sometimes when I write, I get lost in the point I'm trying to make, so my work becomes the wrong thing. The hardest part of writing papers is finding a purpose to my words. For some reason, I feel like I forget how to write a paper while I'm writing it. I've been trained for so many years in writing papers that it should be easy, but it's still challenging because analyzing a work and extracting some meaning from it are difficult tasks. I think we all just need more time and focus to perform our best. 

I'm deciding not to let the negative grade bring me down. Especially with the provided comments, I definitely can improve on my next paper, due this Saturday, so I'm going to use this week to do better on my next one. Criticism should not hinder you or convince you that you are not worthy; criticism should motivate you to be better. If you're not constantly improving, then you're simply static, never leveling up. It's empowering to know that I am in complete control of my bettering - and you should take the shots too. 

After all,