self-doubt

The Imposter Syndrome

not all wars are fought with bullets,

we each can battle throughout our lives
with a part of ourselves that fears to see
that there is excellence within us,
that actively seeks to keep it from manifesting,
the “imposter syndrome,” a term that seems to encapsulate
the part of us that so doubts ourselves
that we fear others seeing us as “posers,”
who know that we are faking it,
that underneath the illusion of our sureness
there is a little kid
who doesn’t really know 
what they’re doing,

when we are most vulnerable,
this self-doubt wraps all around us
as if it is a snake who squeezes the life out,

my career has been to work with adolescents
and help them burst free of the confining coils
so that they can write and speak the truths they create
when they win a battle against debilitating doubt,

on stage the victory of self to be seen
can be striking and heartening,

in the classroom, on the field, with a team,
the battle quietly rages,

self-doubt can be a malicious enemy.

by Henry H. Walker

July 17, ‘20