Reviewing my playing history.

Upon reviewing my tournament history, I was surprised to discover how few events I played in where I could be expected to face people rated significantly higher than me. Most of the events I played in were scholastic tournaments where there were one or two players rated 1500+, a couple 12-1300, and the rest in the scholastic abyss. There were a few tournaments I played where they had classes and I was near the cap on my class. Unless I'm miscounting, the four events I've played in since coming back to chess this year matches the number of "real" events I played in as a scholastic player. No wonder I didn't get very strong! And no wonder my rating jumped up 200 points when I started playing in "real" events (it may jump further, of course, but it's at +200 so far). When I look at the playing history of successful scholastic players (either my contemporaries or current successes), I note that they are playing frequently in "real" tournaments - if not "open", at least having a ceiling such that they will play people stronger than them.