"We put in all of his time and money, and this is where you end up."

They said that in response to me telling them my final result/number/grade that I would graduate high school with. This number is calculated over a years' worth of rigorous testing, during the final year of high school. My parents put a lot of effort making sure I could be as academically adept as I could be from a young age so I could build a a strong track record for the final year of high school.

I had all but given up on my exams about halfway through the year (knee injury, family problems etc). But I kept going. Before every exam I would whisper to myself: "your father is not working an exhausting job with a bad wage for you to do badly. Your mother did not spend hours of her life driving you to expensive tutoring centres for you to do badly." I did all of my exams for them, and that idea that I would do them proud. To make their thirteen years of work worth it.

Anyways I got an appalling score so I understand their reaction, but it still tore a hole in my heart, to have my primary motivating force to... put it out like that, that I failed them. It lead to an irrepairable rift in our relationship as well, because it added to a whole bunch of other pre-existing problems. But that statement was the final straw.

And now they wonder why I'm no longer happy or vulnerable around them. Ok.