Imposter phenomenon
(12/02/15 7:14am)
Like many of you, I remember the day I got into Duke with special clarity. The jumping, the crying, the overjoyed shouting from my mom and sister. All the blood, sweat and tears, the hundreds of hours I spent memorizing Latin conjugations and working through calculus problems, the car rides sitting in traffic on the way home from varsity tennis or Relay for Life or the local homeless teen shelter... It was all worth it for this, the offer to become a Blue Devil. Yet, as the calls came rolling in from relatives and friends, my perception of my acceptance began to change. “Congratulations,” aunts and uncles and grandparents would say, “We’re so proud of you.” “Thank you,” I would reply, nodding bashfully into the phone, “I’m just so lucky.”