That transition of being naturally talented and regularly complimented/praised on my drawings as a kid to clearly no longer being the best once I was in my teens was rough for me.

I should have learned some truth and gotten motivated to improve my skills. What actually happened was a complete evaporation of my confidence in my own abilities and potential, with me ultimately giving up on drawing altogether within a few years after.

The kicker is that I wasn't even bad. Both art classes combined probably saw something like 200 teens a day come through their classes but I was still usually having my artwork displayed with the top three or five students for the whole school to see. I still received compliments regularly although they weren't as frequent anymore. That should have been a confidence booster but all I could think about was how much better "the best" was to mine (at least as far as I was concerned) and how it felt pointless to try if I wasn't going to be "the best". It probably wasn't helped by being a teen and going through all those self-esteem struggles anyway.

That was many, many years ago now and I still don't draw anymore but I do often wonder how much I could have improved or at least continued to enjoy the hobby if I had had a healthier attitude towards it all.