Chrystal Kusi | Columbia University
I first visited Columbia the summer after my sophomore year of high school. I felt so at home on campus and from that visit, I knew that I had found the place where I wanted to spend my college years. When I finally received my acceptance letter during my senior year I was overwhelmed with joy and truly felt like everything I had put into doing well in school had paid off.
During my first year, I met amazing people and had a great time, but the most important moment was when I finally learned that I was bigger than the voice in my head telling me that I didn’t belong.
After settling into the swing of being a Columbia student the initial wave of excitement was followed by anxiety and I found myself constantly asking, “Should I really be here?” I was surrounded by people who had attended expensive schools that had basically groomed them to end up at a place like Columbia. Compared to them I felt like I had only gotten accepted by chance.
What I didn’t understand at the time was what a great disservice I was doing to myself by undervaluing myself and my experiences. It was through talking to other people that I discovered many of us were struggling with the same imposter syndrome and for whatever reason feeling like we weren’t enough when that couldn’t have been any further from the truth.
Experiencing imposter syndrome in a new environment isn’t abnormal. What really matters is understanding these feelings are an internalization of anxieties that don’t reflect the truth about who you are or your ability to succeed.
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