Loved it. I totally agree. Sometimes you just need that persistent person to encourage you, and then you'll do things you had never thought you could do and actually enjoy. The feeling of achievement is exhilarating.
You know it happens that sometimes, many times perhaps, parents are just too encouraging and their children do amazingly; they become those super achievers. But I've seen a lot of these children; I've had them in my classroom, and I've seen them grow up to become professionals, successful adults in general, and when the world becomes hostile and no one's around to cheer them up, they fail to thrive.
Any child that makes it to adulthood in spite of the lack of devoted parents, and gets to live a happy life (which is much greater than being a super achiever) is definitely a super achiever, paradoxically. Don't you think? (You're proof of that.)