Luck or hard work; Imposter Syndrome in students

University is in many ways a place of discovering yourself; be it the choice between cooking and ordering take away with only £5.67 in your bank account or your preferred studying environment. Both are very valid struggles but one of the most tenacious struggles is feeling like you don’t belong or deserve your place at uni.

From my experience, I remember the first few weeks of seminars feeling like the curtain closing on the façade that is my entire life. I thought surely somebody would shine a spotlight on me and reveal that i was nothing short of a fraud. I did not know literature like I had pretended. Suddenly, the statistics of students who drop out within the first semester started to make sense.

You’re tossed into a melting pot of students from private schools and families of intellectuals and if you went to barely functioning schools like me this can be paralyzing. You find yourself surrounded by students whose vocabulary exceeds the lecturer’s and it’s almost certain they could write their dissertation immediately after the inductions.

Imposter syndrome is defined as “the persistent inability to believe that one’s success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one’s own efforts or skills. Put simply, feeling as though your achievements are purely a result of luck.

This psychological cage doesn’t just exist in the student world however, some people experience it in casual part time work and more importantly lifelong careers. Regardless the level of expertise or finesse, imposter syndrome can make scholars with multiple doctorates feel intellectually inadequate and lawyers feel about as informed actors with rehearsed “law” terms. This feeling comes despite the evidence of one’s competence.

I write this not as a vain attempt to boost everybody’s self esteem and state that you are far better than you believe but rather as someone who was on the brink of abandoning my career aspirations because of a lack of information. Anyone who has ever experienced a panic attack will tell you, figuring out the reason is the hardest part. This is the hardest part.

I will not attempt to give you a step by step on how to rid yourself of imposter syndrome instead I will say this; the world does not function purely on luck, your position at university is a result of your grades and personal statement. Your promotion at work is a result of your hard work and expertise. Your success in any area of life is just that, yours, treat it as such.

Originally published at http://culturetalkswithkim.wordpress.com on March 13, 2020.