I just had someone make my day. No... Make my whole month. In a good way!
I had a student approach me that I taught quite a few months ago and thanked me for being so hard on him in class. He realized what I was trying to teach him, not only in academics, but as a sailor and in life. He graduated towards the bottom of my class while he was with me and wound up graduating at the top of all his next classes. He came up to me this afternoon to apologize to me for the way he acted in my class and that he realized what I was trying to get him to understand for himself.
Ahh... It's things like this that make me feel like my job is worth it sometimes.