Steven Riddle's "Lessons Learned at St. Blog's"

. . . So, while for many a tenure at St. Blogs is an exercise against the temptation of pride, for me it is a constant lesson in humility. I walked in thinking I was "all that," and discovered that I am just one of a great many fairly intelligent, but not necessarily top-notch thinkers. What I thought was a breadth of view and vast vistas of interests turns out, in the end, to have been a fairly parochial, fairly narrow range compared with some in St. Blogs. . . .

Stephen Riddle ("Lessons Learned at St. Blog's", "Flos Carmeli". Nov. 9, 2004)

My own experience as well, especially when I read Flos Carmeli, Disputations, or Rerum Novarum.

Although in retrospect, I think whatever illusion I had that I was "all that" was dealt a crippling blow the moment I stepped off the college campus and into the "real world."

Anyway, a very good post from Stephen Riddle.