My teacher did.

I failed maths because of my final grade. I already failed science and physics, but that was not critical because I compensated by doing extremely well in all of my other classes, except maths...

I was good, well barely, until I failed my final test and I was literally a tenth (lol) short. Begged and begged my teacher to check for any mistakes, just a tenth of a point and I would graduate, he said he would take a look but that there was probably nothing he could do since the test was already double checked by another person as well as him.

It was the day before summer break so I didn't get a hold of him again and I didn't graduate.

My life went to shit. My parents were extremely upset, accused me of being a slacker, blaming me for failing my classes. They had paid for extensive tutoring and demanded I pay them back. I got kicked out, moved away and took a job, two jobs actually, while taking evening classes to get my diploma the following year. It got too hectic, when my shifts changed and I had to chose between my classes or my job, I had really no choice but to drop my classes.

I worked for four years after that. My parents were so disappointed. They were fully understanding and supportive when I was having a hard time at school, and did everything they could to help me, but they couldn't watch me fail over and over and they couldn't pick me up. Our relationship deteriorated to the point of not speaking for two years at some point. It got better when I applied for an admission test at a local university, got in and moved back to my hometown, but it was never the same again.

Second year of uni and who do I bump into, my old math teacher. There were no hard feelings from my side so I greeted him and asked him if he was still working at my old high school etc. He answered politely but then his face turned serious, and he told me that he was cleaning up some paperwork the year after my finals, and found my test. Had completely forgotten about it, felt bad, and had the second look he said he would. Lo and behold, he made a mistake. (Something along the lines of a simplified answer marked as insufficient with only half of the points rewarded instead of the full points, while the answer was correct, just simplified. I should have gotten the full points.) I shouldn't have failed the test, and therefor I shouldn't have failed the class. I should have graduated.

He said he tried to contact me many times, to make things right, but I had moved and my friends and old classmates no longer knew where I lived, I lost my phone number because my parents no longer paid my bill and changed my e-mail address to a more professional one when I was looking for jobs.

By then I just said it was OK and I didn't blame him, and I suppose I don't, but after thinking about it for a while I am impressed at how such a seemingly insignificant fact can change everything so drastically. I lost all my friends when I moved away. The distance, having different lives, becoming different people drove us apart. I lost out on a typical university experience. And most of all I feel like I lost my parents, and my parents lost me.

Now that everything is back on track it's easy/easier to say 'Oh well' and not get angry or bitter. You forget the times you felt so alone and tired, over worked and abandoned. You forget the nights you cried yourself to sleep. The times you were so frustrated, and so full of self loathing you could kill yourself. You forget the pain you'd never thought would go away.

Oh and ironically, the day I moved out I found a haggard 10 cent coin on the platform where I was waiting for my train. A lucky dime and that unlucky 10th of a point that I felt ruined my life completely together in one moment. In the midst of a personal crises, I smiled.