With the emphasis on 'did,' I would assume that the grandfather was still acting like he hadn't done enough and, "I did everything that you asked me to," is the rebuttal to that. Sort of like this scary Asian dad that my wife encountered on the subway once (yelling at his ~7 year old kid):
This is not perfect! It must be perfect! Not 80%.
Not 90%. That's not perfect! Must be perfect!
The gist was that his grandfather had pushed him very, very hard to study and work very, very hard from a very early age. And he was finally able to tell his grandfather that he could no longer tell him what to do/order him to work hard - he had done it all - he had done everything that the grandfather had pushed him to do. It is a sense of closure, more than anything but still very significant. My friend had ulcers in high school, if that is any indication of how hard he studied.
Don't mean to hijack the thread but ulcers have nothing to do with how hard you study or how stressfull your life is; it is a misconception that really needs to be put to rest.
Most ulcers are caused by h. pylori infection (and sometimes by over-medication in childrens cases).
Your friend most likely ate unshashed fruits/vegetables overseas, or had access to someone who did
We all have h. pylori in our stomachs, but only some of us have ulcers. This is because stress plays a role in weakening the stomach's defenses, giving h. pylori a chance to create ulcers.
