<p>@BCP: The reason I don’t ever feel like I deserve something is because I equate deserving something to entitlement. </p>
<p>We’re just blessed to be here and everything else is the cherry on top. One need only read Guns, Germs, and Steel to understand that we just got lucky. We could have been born in Misrata and currently getting shelled by Muammar Gaddafi’s forces. </p>
<p>Heck, if you know anything about String Theory, there may be another eyethink in another dimension who’s stricken with cancer. </p>
<p>So if I start to feel like I deserve things, I feel like the purity of my academic struggle and my life in general will have been besmirched. </p>
<p>That’s just me though. ;-)</p>