But the Senate race didn’t go as planned and, in retrospect, it’s clear that Walker probably shouldn’t have run. In the battle of the campaign, Walker’s private struggles and family secrets were on full display. Previous abuses were detailed and previously unknown children were revealed. Even his claim that he earned a degree in criminal justice from UGA turned out to be false.

Politics is a terrible business and it is designed to destroy anyone with something to hide, even people with good intentions. The media gauntlet is intended to ensure transparency and hold people accountable before they take public office. But it’s a daunting process, especially for a person like Walker, who started out as a hero to many but ended up being just as flawed as the rest of us, if not more flawed at times.

Despite Washington Republicans’ most aggressive defense in the hectic final weeks of the campaign, Walker lost to Warnock in a runoff and quickly disappeared from the public eye. He sold his home in Atlanta, cut off contact with most of his political associates and, as far as everyone knew, returned to Dallas, where he had started.

But then, more than a year after the campaign ended, a picture came. It was Walker, stuck in a cramped desk-chair combination, who was photographed in a classroom during summer school classes on UGA’s main campus in Athens. A call to the registrar’s office confirmed that he had quietly re-enrolled as a student in UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences, where he had started more than 40 years earlier. Yes, at age 62, Walker was a student again.

At this point it is important to say that this was not a publicity stunt. There were no press releases to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution or quiet hints from Walker or his team. He seemed to simply be back in Athens to take care of long-unfinished business.

Unlike many of today’s standout college football players, Walker enrolled in in-person classes and not just online courses. He was frequently spotted throughout Athens, once cycling his bicycle near campus with his huge frame carefully balanced on it. On another occasion, he strolled through the Tate Student Center smiling, occasionally stopping to sign autographs or take selfies with excited students.

Charlie Ferguson, a third-year finance student, had often heard about Walker’s football exploits while growing up in Atlanta and is one of the students who saw him on campus. “I think it’s great that he decided to come back and get a degree, even if it’s years later,” Ferguson said.

Like all students, Walker had an online profile on the UGA student site LISTSERV, including his email address and his motto: “If you work hard, you’ll be hard to beat.” A fellow student posted on Walker’s social media Account that after a group of friends tried to convince their English professor to cancel class on the Friday before the famous Georgia-Florida football game, they saw Walker emerging from class ahead of them.

“She said, by God, if Herschel can go to class that Friday, so can we.”

Going back to school as an adult comes with a humility that’s hard to describe unless you’ve been there yourself. When I started my master’s degree in my thirties, the first student I met asked me if I was his professor. “No,” I said, laughing. “I’m just here to learn, just like you.”

With his return to Athens, Walker publicly admits that although he didn’t graduate the first time, it is still important to him to finish what he started long ago. It doesn’t erase everything we learned in his Senate campaign. But it adds so much to what we thought we knew.

There is an old saying that politicians like to trace back to Winston Churchill (who may have said it originally): “Success is never final and failure is never fatal.” It is courage that counts.”

Walker will inspire more people as he graduates this week, 44 years after enrolling as a freshman, than he likely ever would have under today’s take-no-prisoners policy. By simply showing up and completing his degree, he showed that failure is never fatal, no matter what you’ve already lost.

Well done, Herschel Walker.