"Getting excellent grades?" Check.

I also regularly won competitions for writing and singing, and they hated it. I received a perfect score for a choral audition and was not allowed to actually perform because my father had an inferiority complex and it would have brought attention to our family.

Of course, the excuse was that my chorus teacher called too early in the morning to remind me to come to practice. What is stupid reason to deny your child such a huge opportunity.

30 years later, I'm still upset over this. It might have changed my life considerably for the better. Now I'm just kind of surviving.