As college students, we all feel the pressures of impending adulthood. The need to land internships, make good grades, work to pay off our mountains of student debt, and even more can feel as though is is crushing us. Once we start achieving our goals, however, things begin to change. Sometimes, getting what we have worked so hard for makes us feel as if we didn’t belong in whatever position we find ourselves in.
Imposter syndrome is commonly known as the belief that despite your concrete successes and achievements, you are a fraud and that you just don’t deserve the position that you’re in. Sound familiar? According to Medical News Today, about seventy percent of people will experience signs or symptoms of imposter syndrome in their lifetimes. In fact, this state of mind is especially common in women who are categorized as ‘high achievers.’
Personally, I have most certainly experienced imposter syndrome at least once in my lifetime. The summer between senior year of high school and freshman year of college, I was given a management position in the retail store I was working at. Despite the fact that I knew I had earned the position through hard work and experience, I also had this horrible feeling that some higher-up was going to come to their senses, realize that they had given an 18 year old with no world experience the keys to the store, and take it back. I spent the whole summer afraid that the position that I had worked so hard for and loved was just going to be taken away from me.
In college, we are at an even higher risk for risk of feeling this way. The whole point of being in college is for us to gain the knowledge and experience for us to land our killer dream job after graduation. We work ourselves to the ground trying to pass all of our classes, make all the right connections, and yet we still feel as though we’re not working hard enough. Trust me, I’ve been there too. Thankfully, I have a tip or two on how to kick those feelings of self doubt and start recognizing your own worth.
In short, you just have to take a step back and realize that you have worked hard to get where you are and take comfort in knowing that you did the absolute best that you could have done. Don’t get me wrong, though, this is the absolute hardest thing to do for some of us. Until recently, I had a really hard time doing this. I have found that the easiest way to acknowledge your accomplishments is to simply list them on a piece of paper. For example: I have had a job since the age of 16, I was a manager at my store at the age of 18, I am on track to graduate in three years with a double major, and I have worked my way through college. Some days my list is harder to believe than others, but having something concrete to look at sometimes makes it easier to believe.
In all, we all experienced our own feelings of doubt at one point or another, but when those feeling seem to be consuming your every waking thought, take a step back, list out your accomplishments, and take comfort in knowing that you are a hard-working, deserving lady.
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