At one point, Molly Smith Metzler ’00 viewed her career as a playwright and screenwriter to be a failure. Now, as a producer and writer for the hit TV Showtime series “Shameless” and writer for “Orange is the New Black,” she can look back and see her “failures” were not failures at all, but the experiences that shaped her.

We continue the series of “If I Knew Then” with other alumni, on the lessons they have learned.