Measurement of progress.
Today I got my first two written assignments back for university. My degree is in English and Film Studies. One essay was on John Donne and the Renaissance, the other was a sequence analysis of Blue Velvet. I got a first in both. I'm pretty fucking pleased, I must say. The specific feedback is too fussy, too pedantic, to do cartwheels, but since the way of assessment here is different to school, and because I had had no other essays to write until now, I had no idea how well I was making progress.