self-confidence – how academic achievement isn’t always the answer

Coming from an ultra-humble background in East Germany – which had just emerged from the Soviet era – and my parents going through multiple unemployed periods when I was growing up, the thought of ever going to Harvard, Yale or Oxford seemed surreal. If it could be achieved, though, it would hold limitless opportunities. After […]

Fake It ‘Til You Make It

Like many young people, when I was a teenager, I struggled with my self-esteem. As I said in a previous post, I spent much of my time in high school avoiding being vulnerable and staying out of the spotlight. My self-confidence had taken a sudden nosedive from the self-assured person I had been in middle school, […]