Congratulations, you\u2019re officially a Golden Bear! You walk across Sproul Plaza toward your first discussion section of the semester, envious of the confidence that seems to radiate from all those surrounding you. After taking two wrong turns in Dwinelle Hall, you finally stumble upon your classroom and slide into a desk in the back.<\/p>\n
Your GSI is reviewing yesterday\u2019s lecture, but nothing they say jogs your memory. Zoned out, you finally snap back to reality when you hear your GSI tell the class to split up into small groups.<\/p>\n
For a moment, you\u2019re relieved, hopeful that your classmates are in the same boat of perplexity as you. That is, until you\u2019re the only one who has remained silent in the group discussion while your peers are talking about the material as they learned it in high school. That\u2019s when you realize \u2014 you might be the only person in the whole class who has no clue what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n
When that dreadful, dragging hour of section comes to an end, you\u2019re engulfed with a single, frightening thought: maybe you don\u2019t belong here.<\/p>\n
If this sounds familiar, you\u2019re not alone. This feeling, also known as imposter syndrome, is a pattern of thinking in which someone doubts their abilities, accomplishments or intelligence, living with a fear of being exposed as an \u201cimposter\u201d despite being genuinely qualified and deserving of where they are.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to feel like an imposter at the No. 1 public university in the nation. Here\u2019s the first thing you should know: You are deservedly and intentionally a Golden Bear. That admissions letter you got wasn\u2019t a fluke \u2014 your accomplishments got you here, and you should be incredibly proud of yourself. Now that that\u2019s settled, here\u2019s how to actually get through the moments when it doesn\u2019t feel that way.<\/p>\n
Stop defining your worth by academic achievement<\/p>\n
If your sense of self is determined by every exam grade, every quiz question you got wrong or discussion section where you felt behind, you\u2019re setting yourself up to feel like an imposter on a weekly basis. Find something that has nothing to do with your grades, whether that be an intramural sport, a fitness class or a new creative hobby. Choose an activity to do because it\u2019s fun and fulfilling, not because it\u2019s resume-worthy. Pair that with people who feel good to be around, not people who leave you feeling out of place. An uplifting community is one of the best buffers against imposter syndrome there is.<\/p>\n
Explore Berkeley beyond the classroom<\/p>\n
Building a life here that isn\u2019t only about academic achievements reminds you that Berkeley is much more than a place you\u2019re graded in; it\u2019s a place that\u2019s your home. Find time outside of studying to try one of Berkeley\u2019s great restaurants or go on a beautiful hike. Explore this unique city that you live in while you can, outside the walls of Doe Library or Main Stacks, because you\u2019re allowed to enjoy this place \u2014 not just survive it.<\/p>\n
Stop comparing yourself to others<\/p>\n
The version of your peers you\u2019re comparing yourself to is the version of themselves that they choose to show. We\u2019re all moving through our academics and careers at different speeds, shaped by factors that have nothing to do with how capable we are. You can trick yourself into thinking that everyone else has it figured out, whether you\u2019re scrolling through LinkedIn or struggling to keep up with that one all-knowing classmate. Your worth should not be determined by how you measure up to another\u2019s highlight reel.<\/p>\n
Schedule downtime into your calendar<\/p>\n
Some of us may even perceive how busy we are as an indicator of our success. When your calendar being completely full feels like proof that you\u2019re doing enough, rest starts to feel like you\u2019re falling behind. Make downtime a scheduled event in your calendar by blocking it off the same way you\u2019d block off a lecture or meeting \u2014 don\u2019t treat it as something that needs to be earned. The goal isn\u2019t to do less, but to prove to yourself that you\u2019re deserving of rest and your worth isn\u2019t tied to how busy you are.<\/p>\n
Know that you\u2019re not the only one<\/p>\n
Experiencing feelings of self-doubt doesn\u2019t make you an outlier \u2014 it actually means you\u2019re in the majority. Imposter syndrome is incredibly common at UC Berkeley, a top school that brings together so many high-achieving students from such different backgrounds. Many of us were at the top of our class, but when you\u2019re here, you realize everyone else was too. That realization can leave you wondering if you\u2019re truly as accomplished as the people around you. It\u2019s a quiet thought, but an extremely common one. It\u2019s why so many of us end up feeling like we don\u2019t belong, but surely we can\u2019t all be imposters.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s OK to not have it all figured out \u2014 not now, and maybe not for a while. Imposter syndrome will try to convince you it means something more, but uncertainty doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t belong. You\u2019re a Golden Bear, and you\u2019ve earned the right to be proud of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Congratulations, you\u2019re officially a Golden Bear! You walk across Sproul Plaza toward your first discussion section of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[14758,125809,171284,171285,15342,87756,143,145,144,26656,149],"class_list":["post-430933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-doe-library","tag-dwinelle","tag-golden-bear","tag-imposter-syndrome","tag-linkedin","tag-main-stacks","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-sproul-plaza","tag-uc-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}