"A man is great not because he hasn't failed; a man is great because failure hasn't stopped him."

Confucius

This couldn't be truer. If we include things happening to the 'man' (read: human) that are out of their control as failure, then we're onto a winner.

Your reality definitely isn't what you imagined when you were growing up. What matters is that you kept on growing up, failure after failure. Embrace your reality and make something of it. Don't let failure stop you.