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Many days I feel like a fraud. Not just as a writer, but as a mother. As a student. As an experienced professional in the day job I’ve held for many years.

Impostor Syndrome.

There are many speakers who will tell you this happens to everyone. That you just have to fake it ’til you make it.

Fine.

I do.

I fake it. Day in. Day out. I made it. I am successfully a mother. A student with decent grades. A (mostly) competent employee. A sometimes writer.

I have faked my way all the way to here.

So why then do I still feel like a fraud?

The key shouldn’t be faking it. It should be letting yourself be honest that you’re afraid you aren’t qualified. To be aware that even those you see as qualified have the same impostor syndrome.

“They’re all going to laugh at you” isn’t just  a quote relegated to Stephen King’s telekinetic girl Carrie. On some level we all feel that way.

There is no magic moment where you suddenly feel better. Where you suddenly decide you are on the right path. That you can do it.

So a final quote to leave you with, from Whoopi Goldberg’s Sister Mary Clarence in Sister Act 2 –

“If you want to be somebody –

If you want to go somewhere –

You better wake up and pay attention”

Be honest with yourself. Put in the effort. Put yourself out there. Rinse and Repeat.

And stop worrying about whether or not you should be where you are.

You are here.

And here is where you are.