With 2020 behind us and the new year just beginning, Peer Advisor Megan shares what’s on her mind and how she’s starting fresh in 2021.

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I think it’s fair to say 2020 was not the year most people were hoping for. I had all these big plans, and nearly all of them were moved to the backburner or cancelled entirely. I completely understand that the difficulties we’ve been facing didn’t just go away when the clock struck midnight on New Year’s. However, I always feel like the new year is a natural turning point for me, and this new year I need it more than most. It’s a logical transition, I can let go of all the things that didn’t go according to plan last year and just start fresh. A blank slate. Here are a few things I’m doing to let go of 2020 and set myself up for success in 2021.

1. I’m starting a new journal! If you’ve never journalled before, I highly recommend it. For about two years, I’ve simply been writing down things that happen and how I feel about them. It’s really useful for me to explain my thoughts and get them down on paper. My journal is not especially pretty or Instagram-worthy, but that’s not the point for me. If you want to keep a journal, you have to find a format that feels right for you, or else it won’t work. Mine is like a conversation with myself, and when things get difficult, I always come back to my journal. Needless to say, it got quite full last year. In 2021, I’m starting a new one, both a metaphorical and physical blank page to write the story of the new year. Whether you journal or not, if you have a planner or specific pens for your schoolwork or something like that, I think getting yourself new tools can help you feel like things are moving forward, even if we’ve been sort of stuck in a rut for the past year. 
2. I’m moving! Obviously, not everyone can just uproot their lives and move somewhere new. This step I’m taking took months of planning to make happen, and I’m not recommending you spontaneously move across the country. For me, it was important to create a new environment for myself, and the stars aligned for me to move in with a close friend who lives in Texas (yeehaw!). For others, this may mean painting your walls a different color, moving your furniture, or even just reorganizing your “school space” separate from your “personal space.” I spent a lot of 2020 feeling stagnant, so making obvious, visual changes to my life is important to me to jumpstart my personal growth again.
3. I’m trying new things! When I was a freshman, some of the best advice I got was from one of my RAs. It was about this time of year, and I was explaining I didn’t feel like I’d found my “fit” yet at GW, the right people to hang out with or orgs to be involved in. She told me it was super normal to feel that way. There’s this expectation you’ll meet your best friends on the first day and you’ll be friends forever, but a lot of people she knew didn’t have that until second semester of freshman year, at least. And for me, she was completely right. I think that’s especially true for this year’s freshmen, I can’t imagine how hard it must be to try to find your “fit” at GW when you aren’t even physically at GW. So try new things, meet new people, join an org on GW Engage, attend virtual events, but most importantly, give yourself time to do all those things. That’s the other best advice I got as a freshman: no one actually knows what they’re doing, especially in D.C. So don’t worry, there’s no pressure to have it all figured out instantaneously, particularly in a pandemic.
4. Most importantly, don’t hold 2020 against yourself. The things that went wrong for me last year weren’t my fault. My expectations for myself have always been my greatest enemy, often more than the expectations of others. I compare reality to the idea in my head of how things were “supposed” to be. But my “failure” to meet my own expectations isn’t a failure of my character, it was out of my hands. 2019 was really good for me, and I came into 2020 ready to build on that, whether that was academically, professionally, or personally. What happened was nowhere near the personal growth I’d anticipated, I feel like I’m worse off at the end of 2020 than I was at the end of 2019. But whenever you feel like was the last time you “had it all together,” just pick up from there, progress doesn’t have to be linear. Coming into 2021, I find I’m frequently reminding myself that none of this was my fault. There’s no goal I “failed” to meet, no version of myself that’s “supposed” to exist but doesn’t. There’s just the me that’s coming into 2021, ready to take on the world once again. 

As I write this, I can’t help but think about all my plans for 2020, the things I moved to the backburner or had to cancel. They’re all things I still want: courses I want to take, places I want to visit, people I want to spend time with. I will get to do those things, someday, but for now, I need to focus on getting to the part where that happens. So, study hard, wear your mask, stay safe, and raise high in 2021. With a bit of luck, hopefully things will be better before we know it.

Wishing you all the best!

Peer Advisor Megan
megangreenstein@gwu.edu

Check out Peer Advisor Abby Guen’s tips on how to counteract impostor syndrome in your academics!

Let’s face it: this semester has been hard. This isn’t what any of us envisioned, and for those of you who are freshmen, this surely isn’t how you envisioned your introduction into college. I hope you’ve fallen into the swing of things with a little over 2 months under your belt, and while the hours staring at a screen may not be getting easier (in fact, they may be getting harder), you have made it this far and that is enough.

Speaking of being enough, let’s talk about something I’ve suffered from all throughout college: academic impostor syndrome. If you’re not familiar with the term, Harvard Business Review defines impostor syndrome as a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success. As a freshman and sophomore in the Elliott School, I felt this in my classes all the time – why didn’t I know the answers to any of the questions being asked during class? Why did it feel like my comments weren’t as insightful as other students? Was I not spending enough time outside of class reading up on general topics in international affairs? As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that asking such broad questions of myself isn’t productive, and that there are several things I should keep in mind when inadvertently comparing myself to other students. Next time you’re feeling inadequate, think about these things:

You got into GW. You got into the Honors Program. You are more than smart enough to be here. I hope this is a given. You are going to take classes in many different departments while you’re at GW, and there is simply no way you will be well-informed about the subject matter for all of them. You will respond differently to each class’s material, each professor’s teaching style, and what’s going on in your life outside of your classes is constantly changing. Everyone’s definitions of success vary, and if you’re feeling inadequate, consider what you might be struggling with in your life, and how your ability to overcome it is just as important as your performance in school.

Everyone’s brains work differently. This is a big one for me. I had a propensity – especially in my origins classes – to think that if someone said something about a reading that I would never have thought of, it meant that I had missed something big. I also felt like my contributions didn’t sound as insightful as other students. Everyone’s brain processes literature differently, and we each prioritize information in distinct ways. Not seeing all the perspectives right away doesn’t immediately mean you missed something. What is obvious to one person’s brain might not have been obvious to you, and vice versa. It’s likely that someone will hear your contributions and think they was quite insightful, and that they had never thought about it that way. If you’re ever feeling lost in class, I can guarantee that you’re not the only one.

Knowledge does come with age, to an extent. Some people are naturally good at remembering things, or have great confidence speaking in class. Some people may also have a special interest in the subject matter being studied by your class, and therefore their knowledge may in fact be larger than yours (the example that comes to my mind is when I took History of American Foreign Policy as a sophomore and knew almost nothing about the Middle East or US military history, but half the class were ROTC students.) As a senior now, I feel much more confident in my knowledge and my reading abilities then I did even two years ago, when I was still a very capable student. Your knowledge and ability to synthesize information both improve as you move through college, and it is natural for impostor syndrome to feel like a big deal when you’re just starting out. Just know it gets better with time, and keep reminding yourself that you are awesome!

One final thing: remember there are many ways to showcase your capabilities. Class participation can come in form of emailing your professors after class to clarify something or talk about a topic that interested you, or going to office hours. In classes you really love, find ways to go above and beyond what is asked of you. But don’t stress if you’re not ready for any of that. You have time, and if 2020 has taught us anything it’s the importance of taking care of ourselves. You’ve shown resilience just by making it this far in the semester, but if you’re feeling inadequate at any point, your UHP family will always be here to remind you that you’re awesome.