Someone close to me once described sports achievements and experiences as water under the bridge.
A metaphor to dismiss significance. However, I see it a little differently: the water starts out as just a stream, not very powerful, trickling along at its own pace, indeed - insignificant. But the longer it goes on for, the more momentum it gathers and the stronger the current becomes.
The bigger the stream is, the more space it takes up and the greater influence it begins to have upon the world around it. And then finally, there comes a day when it’s big enough that people aren’t just talking about the stream anymore, they’re talking about the impact it’s had on the landscape that surrounds it, and how it attempts to shape and shift everything in its path.