Your description of English reminds me of my art classes, which convinced me I was useless, despite loving art before art classes ruined it.

English wasn't bad. I was among the best in the class. I won Wispa bars for producing the best work regularly. I only got a B though - and my sister who can't spell if her life depended on it got an A.

I struggled with things like remembering what an adverb or pronoun is. Frankly, it didn't matter. I was able to write instinctively and knew what was right and wrong, for the most part, often without being able to explain academically, why.