on insecurities and grad school

Today, my friend Joscelyne (an undergraduate in philosophy) talked with Luke (graduate student in philosophy) and me about how happy she was that we were all honest with each other about our insecurities. I told her that when she goes off to a PhD program, that it’s important to find that community of people, because it’s important to build a community/comraderie with others who are going through similar things. It seems like graduate school is designed to make you insecure: do I belong here? am I good enough? how did I get in? why is everyone else so much smarter than I am? I feel like I’m succeeding in my MA program because of the relationships I’ve built with other students, relationships where we share our insecurities and fears and where we bond together over struggles and pains we’re having, as well as joys and successes. Joscelyne was happy with our honesty with each other — I wish everyone was honest like that.