I’m a woman in my 40s. On paper, I’ve achieved everything I set out to accomplish. Some milestones took one or two attempts, while others came with surprising ease. I’m now a specialist in a sought-after field, hold an academic position at a university, and am married with a substantial mortgage.
And yet a persistent sense of inadequacy lingers. There’s always someone who seems to have achieved more – at least on paper. I often feel like an impostor, as if luck or connections were the real reasons I got here. When success required more than one attempt, I can’t shake the thought that I didn’t truly earn my place. If I really belonged, I tell myself, I would have succeeded on the first try.
