Dealing with criticism

There was a post on Humans of New York (a hugely popular Facebook page where someone takes pictures of random people on the streets of New York and asks them to tell something about their life) recently where the person pictured said something along the lines of "I'm trying to be happy with myself without being the best". This is something I've thought about the last couple of weeks as I've been getting feedback on my coursework from last semester.

I don't know if it's because I'm an only child and always got a lot of attention from parents and relatives and hence, perhaps subconsciously, learned that I was "special", or because I rarely got anything else than praise for the writing work I did at school, but through my university years, dealing with criticism has always been a struggle.

This happened again last week with one piece of coursework in particular. Though the grade was ok, there was very little positive feedback and nearly every sentence I had written in the 4000-word essay was criticised and questioned in some way.

I know that the person who corrected it did this in order to help me, in an attempt to make me aware of my weaknesses and as a result do better next time. Still, as I am unable to receive negative feedback in a dignified way, I couldn't help seeing every comment as a personal insult and feeling depressed for the rest of the day - even though I know that this kind of behaviour is completely ridiculous and that the essay in question indeed wasn't the best thing I'd produced.

I think this - constantly being assessed for everything - is one of the most stressful things about being a student and it is also part of why I, for the first time ever, have a desire to finish studying and move on into "the real world". (Not that I'm sure if that will be any easier!)

Do you have the same problem as me or have you found a way to deal with criticism and be happy with yourself without having to be "the best"?