15.
And finally, “I’m a perfectionist, so I’ve always found a way to diminish my accomplishments because, in my opinion, I don’t deserve any credit. In 2023, I became a PhD student, and for the first time, that really affected my self-esteem. I felt so behind (it was not exactly in my previous scientific area). The first half of 2024 was so annoying and frustrating — the harder I tried to do better, the worse I felt. My family was proud of me, my friends thought I was doing a great job, my professors would tell me I was very interested and hard-working, but all I could think was that I was a huge fraud about to be unmasked.”
“And then something clicked: I would only succeed if I kept trying. It’s stupid and even irrational to expect to be great at your first attempt. And suddenly, I realized I’ve been doing this to myself my whole life, expecting me to be outstanding at something I’ve never done before, which is ridiculous and pretentious.
So I’ve decided to trust a little more in the people around me and use their words as a motivation to keep going. I’ve written some articles that were terrible, and then some others that were not that bad. My last one actually got really good feedback. Maybe one day, I’ll write a great piece, but I’m not in a rush. I’ve gotten nice results in 2024, but my biggest lesson was that I’m allowed to be stupid sometimes because if I keep working hard, I’ll get there eventually. And most of all, if I can highlight all my flaws, I should feel free to appreciate my qualities as well. We human beings should be more open to that. Cheers to 2025!”
—Anonymous
