"Doesn't mean you can't make something of yourself, don't get me wrong," Atton said. He finished his drink by knocking it back. "But there's actually achievable life goals, and then there's jumping up and down trying to reach a ceiling you can't even see, right?"

In his case, the ceiling was 'being a genuinely functional human being'.

Meetra'd been the best of them, and she'd made him a better person in more than a couple of ways, but that ceiling was still way up there. Being ceiling-y.