Imposter Syndrome

 Originally called impostor phenomenon, impostor syndrome, as it's now usually called, is commonly understood as a false and sometimes crippling belief that one's successes are the product of luck or fraud rather than skill.

In the Fall of 1979 I came up with a plan to move out of our two bedroom apartment and into a rented house. I needed to earn $100 more a month to make that happen. The ABC Club was formed. It was a neighbor pre-school and I enrolled five kids at $20 a month for two mornings a week.  Our new house had an extra bedroom, a larger kitchen and a backyard. The extra bedroom became the pre-school room.

Everything was working but I was feeling like I was posing as a qualified  teacher without credentials. 

                     

   

This stumbling block of needing outside validation to be confident in my skills was tripping me up. I had two years of early childhood education classes in college but yet I didn't have a teaching certificate. 

Over the next decade I would struggle with imposter syndrome and these feelings would often be in direct opposition to  the flashes of light I received from my Heavenly Father.

The light doesn't come because the world has qualified you, the light comes because it illuminates the path for you to grow and develop the skills necessary to move forward. Sometimes the flash of light leads you to learning by study, which can be received from institutions, and other times the learning comes by faith.

ABC Club was a foundation on which I still build as a teacher of children, my own and many others whose parents have entrusted me with their education.

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