Clearly there is a component of maturity involved in my specific case (as you well know) And I beg your pardon, my GPA was above a 3.0
But I was told by one professor at ECU that I was one of the best students she had ever taught- where I was just slightly above average at Wake. I'm not saying it would have been no big deal to get a 4.0 at a different school- but I can feel very confident a 3.8 would have been very, very doable.
As a favor to all of us, please take your incredibly high level of intelligence and apply it to some of your posts.