How good was your instruction?
How thorough was your early instruction?
Before they cut you loose, did they take you through all the many different stall scenarios, engine out, heavy winds, icing, loss of instrumentation, loss of visibility, bad weather, combinations of all those, etc.? And did you practice your recovery/response for each scenario just once, or did you practice over and over until it became second nature to you so that your brain automatically responds the correct way instead of thinking “I guess I need to do X and then Y and then Z”? Many people need that type of multi-point reinforcement to learn something to the point where it becomes automatic—did your instructors know you well enough to find out if you were that type of person?
Notwithstanding the instruction itself, to get your license, how much of all that did you “need”? Were you well served by the licensing process? There are so many, many basic aerodynamic principles involved. Sure and it’s the once in a lifetime occurrence you need to be capable of handling; did the system put you there?