Dear Imposter Syndrome

Dear imposter syndrome,

It turns out you’re the fraud

As platforms become our altars

And people’s praise our god

You leave people fearing

They are a fool among the wise

Paralyzing progress 

By capturing us in your lies

For certainty certainly evades us

Even with the best of evidence

Since omniscience isn’t for us

We all wrestle with inference.

And unless hubris best us

We all know we need to grow

For knowledge only teaches us

To know what we don’t know 

Since knowledge is never satisfied 

learning is best done hand in hand

Because the expert in their own field

Is a novice on neighbors land. 

Therefore, knowing what I know

And seeing what I have been shown

I accept the limits of my learning

And step into the unknown.

But dear imposter syndrome,

I know the cunning in your ways

Allowing our dreams to be perfect

If in our dreams is where it stays.

For imagination is void the limits- 

Of the constraints and rot of reality

Ensnared in fear, you whisper here.

“It’s safer to remain a fantasy”

But fantasy has no power.

We are called to create and make.

So what good is flawless fantasy

When it is hoarded and it’s fake?

But I can hear your rebuttal

Arrive swiftly and slowly rise

Setting standards of perfection, 

Calling everything else a compromise.

And here is where you set your hook

When ideals and urgency dance-

Saying, “you must act now and without fail

Or you’ll forever miss your chance.”

It’s a two-pronged proposition 

Succeed without fault or sacrifice

But you can’t fulfill what you sell

And no one can pay your price.

So dear imposter syndrome  

Here is my answer to your lies

I will follow my curiosity,

I will be someone who tries,

I will focus less on my laurels

As well my past faults 

For simply making progress

Seems to fend off your assaults

For inertia always resists

Trying to keep me in my place

That is until I begin to move

Then it helps me keep my pace.

And I will not be too proud to ask for help—

Nor to offer when I am asked

I will learn to learn with child’s eyes

My time as student has not passed

And from the safety of the sidelines

There will be some who scoff and jeer

But by stepping foot in the arena,

The imposters are not my peer

So I won’t be broken by their doubts-

Nor distracted by loving laud 

Because dear imposter syndrome

It is you who are the fraud.