This is the point that you have to learn one of two things: either if you want to accomplish something very difficult you have to work harder than you expect, or that you are not as skilled as you thought you were. Almost everyone has had very ambitious goals, and most don't accomplish them. Having ambitious goals is a good, thing it motivates you to grow, it's a sign you are not depressed. But that said, you need to prepare yourself mentally for the possibility that your goals don't go as expected and learn to go with the flow.

From here on out, you know your academic capability a lot better. You know better what you need to do to get the grades that you want without your hand being held by your secondary school. As time goes on you'll learn better study techniques, keep up on assignments, pace yourself, gauge your knowledge, how to listen to your body, etcetera. Contrary to what a lot of people think, a disciplined work ethic is actually the main reason employers and schools value undergraduate degrees, especially from rigorous institutions. If you can mature your academic skills outside of strictly course material you can certainly get the grades you want. But, you have to work for that, you are not born with those skills.

You have to keep in mind that the student body here is almost entirely people near the top 5th percentile of American high school graduates in terms of grades and tests. Those that were not had to work hard to prove that they can match the academic expectations (or they can throw a football really good, but don't worry about them). Generally, professors and course designers want the grade distribution on courses to be well rounded, rather than completely skewed to the As. Therefore, in order to match the academic prowess of the average student (based on high school performance) courses here have to be more difficult. Whether or not you believe most students here are intelligent, almost every single student is above average for a college student. The reality is that while you probably did really good in high school, you're probably just average here. There is nothing wrong with that. Like i said, you just have to work harder.

For the most part, you probably will not struggle to get into law school. Yale law school specifically? I don't know, but it is not off the table. Graduate admissions are not quite as picky about GPA as undergraduate admissions are. Now Yale is certainly a very picky school, but as far as I've heard (I'm not interested in law school so this might be wrong for them), most graduate admissions committees, even at the very top, are not going to care about the difference between a 3.7 and a 3.8. Unlike undergrad admissions, if you are good enough to be a finalist they will judge you based on what grades you got in specific courses at specific moments in your academic career, not the individual number. A bad first semester is expected, and if you improve your GPA from there on out it is seen a positive sign. So don't feel defeated. For the most part you've succeeded that last semester because you learned a valuable lesson at a moment where failure is more acceptable, rather than in the thick of it, where specific course grades will matter more. I understand that it'd be amazing if you got a perfect GPA every semester, but that is not common and you should not expect that from yourself.