Writing Post #4

Coming into college I was really excited to be around so many intelligent and well-rounded people with a desire to make a positive impact. I was excited to immerse myself in my classes and learn at school with renowned professors. I wasn’t prepared however for the feeling that sunk in very quickly after I started here of not belonging. This feeling I learned is all too common among students in college known as imposter syndrome.

It’s crazy to me that I worked so hard to be where I am today yet I’ll never really feel like it’s enough. I sit in my classes talking to my fellow pre-med peers and listening to everything they are doing and can’t help but feel like I’m not enough and I should be doing more. I think everyone in college feels like everyone is doing better than they actually are. I always think that everyone has it all together, but in reality, I need to remember that no one has it all together.

But it’s easier said than done to just brush off this feeling of not being good enough, especially being in pre-med, which is an environment where everyone is competing with each other. The pre-med culture forces students to be competitive within their classes, which fosters a toxic sense of imposter syndrome among pre-med students. Pre-med students see their peers as competition and therefore they want to seem like they are doing better than their competition which leads to a higher sense of imposter syndrome among pre-meds.

Throughout my time here in college, I had to make a conscious effort to combat this sense of imposter syndrome. Recognizing why I feel this way was a really great first step in helping me to not let this sense of imposter syndrome affect my experiences in college. Another strategy I’ve found that helps with imposter syndrome is making sure to surround myself with friends and people who are supportive of both my academic and social goals. Imposter syndrome is hard and easy to fall into especially as a lost freshman, but when you remind yourself that everyone is dealing with similar struggles and no one really has it all together, it only gets easier.