Imposter Syndrome in Law School

March 19, 2020

In the past I have been very open in sharing my mental health journey and my experiences in life with you on here in hopes of fostering a safe environment for others to share how they feel and also as a way of coping for myself.

Recently I shared a post on mental health and law school, which I think was really helpful not only for me but for those who took the time to read it. I wanted to get even more vulnerable on here today because there’s another aspect to mental health that plays a big role in a setting like law school, and that is imposter syndrome.

I found this definition by VeryWellMind: “Impostor syndrome refers to an internal experience of believing that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be. While this definition is usually narrowly applied to intelligence and achievement, it has links to perfectionism and the social context.

To put it simply, it is the experience of feeling like a phony—you feel as though at any moment you are going to be found out as a fraud—like you don’t belong where you are, and you only got there through dumb luck.”

Essentially imposter syndrome is not feeling like you belong or that you’re not good enough to be where you are. I heard it often when I first started law school that that could happen. What I didn’t realize is that I suffer from imposter syndrome not only at school but in my every day life too.

It’s a scary feeling, and it can be difficult when you see everyone else around you finding groups of friends and fitting in and thriving. And hearing how well people think they did on their papers and exams and realizing you don’t understand the material as well as you think you do. But it is so important to realize that looks can be deceiving. Perception plays such a big part of our lives now a days, just look at social media. We all love to put our best foot forward and there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to showcase yourself on your best days. But I think it is also crucial to be a little vulnerable sometimes and show that you’re not perfect and don’t have it all together.

I pride myself on being emotional, and wearing my heart on my sleeve and I am not afraid to share my bad days, once I’ve processed them, with people, because it helps others and it helps me too. Sometimes putting it out there and getting positive feedback from friends and followers on sharing and also hearing that other people feel the same way or agree make me feel better. Or at least I don’t feel alone anymore.

In law school, the feelings of not being good enough or not fitting in, feeling like you’re not as smart as others, and more, are only emphasized by grades and it can be really overwhelming and frustrating at times.

I wanted to write this to say you’re not alone, and I’m not alone in feeling that way. I have made the decision to seek professional help to continue working on myself and improving myself because I want to be the best me I can be, academically, professionally and personally. If you do not want to seek professional help, or cannot, be sure to identify the people and/or resources you can go to to help you work through these feelings.

It’s definitely not an easy journey and it’s hard to accept that you feel this way but once you are conscious of it you can actively begin to process and overcome.

I don’t have all the answers, I am working on processing and working through these feelings myself but I hope by sharing my experience, I can help others out there, in law school, another grad program or in life.

Please always keep your head up and keep pushing through it because at the end of the day you are exactly where you are meant to be and everything happens for a reason. I’m going to be ok, you’re going to be ok and we’re both going to get through this hurdle and be the best version of ourselves.

For more information on imposter syndrome here is the article I read.

Thank you for allowing me to be a little vulnerable with you today, and thank you for reading!

xo Kayla