>fail an exam
>have an existential crisis because I've constructed my entire identity around my academic achievements
How do I convince myself that grades are shitty indicators of character and that they do not matter? I've already been accepted to a PhD program so they quite literally do not matter so long as I get at least a D-, but it's so entrenched in my ego after 4 years that I can't give it up and define myself in any other way than "intelligent academic".