The College Perspective by Lindsey

When you work in customer service, being polite and following the general rules are expected.

Nobody really tells you how hard this is going to be until it’s too late. I learned this the hard way after the third time in a row a customer threw a fit about a missed discount or the fact that I asked them how they were today.

People also don’t tell you how much old men like to hit on 20-year-old women. Or how much your male coworkers will try to ask you out simply because you’re the nearest breathing female.

On one particular occasion, my coworker, who is 70, tries to convince me that my pants are too tight for Lowe’s and that I’m flaunting it. When I ask him what “it” is, he stares directly at my ass. Internally rolling my eyes, I turn to help the next customer.

After the customers leave, he continues with his comments, pulling on my hair and generally standing too close. At this point, I don’t want to be rude but he will not stop. “We don’t sell Viagra in the store. You could never keep up with me. You’re going to have to find someone your own age. Like your wife.”

His face turns red and his hands search for something to do, finally landing on his work schedule that he shuffles and loudly clears his throat. Two minutes later, he clocks out, sights set on asking the head cashier about her pants too.

Two men.

Two demanding majors.

Two very different lives.

At first glance, both students’ rooms have sparse decorations, gray color schemes, and a general lack of excess personal belongings, typical of many male college students. This is one of only two similarities between the two men.

Austin is an introverted biology and chemistry double major pre-med student at Morningside College while Grady is an extroverted vocal performance major.

It may not seem like the two would have much in common, but they suffer from a similar condition known as impostor syndrome.

Often recognized as a side effect of anxiety or depression, impostor syndrome occurs when someone feels like they’ve tricked others into believing they are more successful than they are. Sufferers often do not feel like they deserve the titles they’ve earned and are afraid they will be outed as “impostors.”

While not a diagnosable condition recognized by medical books, therapists around the world are dealing with students who don’t feel like they deserve their degrees, titles, or grades in classes.

Bobbi Meister, LISW at Morningside College, deals with a lot of these issues in students but notices that mental issues like these are changing. “I think that the pressures nowadays, especially for you guys in college is more because college isn’t as novel a commodity as it used to be…there’s a lot of competition to find jobs and to somehow make yourself look better than the next person in line.”

Austin finds job interviews awkward, even with manual labor jobs like road construction, because they require you to “brag” about yourself and your skills, something he doesn’t feel comfortable doing.

Grady echoes this feeling but gives more credit to being raised in the Midwest, where people aren’t supposed to talk about their accomplishments.

Both Austin and Grady didn’t really experience impostor syndrome symptoms until they reached college.

“In college, I ran into the first classes that I’ve really struggled with. You know high school was pretty easy throughout, and this made me think that maybe I wasn’t ‘all that’ or that I’ve just had it easy up till now,” Austin said.

Grady didn’t quite have the breezy high school experience that Austin had, but college presented a new set of challenges for him. “Well I mean I had just started college so that was big. I was also changing my major what seemed like every week. Other than that not much was happening,” he said.

Even though it might seem obvious that the quiet, less confident student would struggle with impostor syndrome, often confident people are hiding their insecurities, like Grady dealing with a new environment and challenges with college-level classes.

Impostor syndrome is often an isolating experience. Many students, especially men, don’t feel like they are able to talk about their issues. Both Grady and Austin don’t tend to talk much about their struggles but Grady admits to talking things through with his fiancé.

Neither Austin or Grady have ever been to a therapist to address their issues.

Meister says of this discrepancy, “I think that women just in general tend to report or talk about these kinds of feelings or thoughts more than men would. Maybe it’s just the societal pressure for men to, you know, have it all together and you can’t talk about those things.”

Austin is no different from other men in how he downplays his feelings. “If I have anything like anxiety or depression it’s fairly manageable and not something that has been diagnosed,” Austin states.

Lauryn Feauto, a fellow sufferer, seemingly deals with her impostor issues like Austin and Grady, but she is more likely to talk about her issues with her friends and family.

“I’ve dealt with impostor syndrome by doing a more ‘fake it till you make it’ mentality and so far that’s been successful. I don’t really talk to anyone about it unless it gets really bad. It’s been a problem pretty much my whole college life, to be honest,” she said.

The men have turned more to internet research which outlines the five general categories of people who suffer from impostor syndrome. Through this method, both men feel like they have a problem, but realize that self-diagnosis isn’t the best method for practicing good mental health. Neither student has immediate plans to see a therapist after talking about their issues.

Since impostor syndrome is not recognized as a disorder, treatment for it is often varied and individualized. Meister uses a combination of techniques to treat students that come through her door. “What I tend to practice in my work is cognitive behavior therapy and basically that’s helping the person understand how your feelings and thoughts and your behaviors are all kind of interconnected. When you make a change in one area it impacts the other area.”

To Meister, it’s all about changing the way people think about themselves and matching their perceptions to reality.

To learn more about impostor syndrome or therapy services offered at Morningside College, you can contact Bobbi Meister by phone at 712-274-5606, email at meisterb@morningside.edu, stop by her office in the lower level of the Olsen Student Center, or schedule a therapy appointment at https://calendly.com/personalcounselor.

To contact Austin email him at atn003@morningside.edu.

To contact Grady, email him at gmk003@morningside.edu.

To contact Lauryn, email her at fallenonyx11@gmail.com.

Growing up with a name like Lindsey Smith, you find that your life is pretty unextraordinary. Nobody mispronounces your name, nobody really makes fun of it. Everyone struggles to spell it, but nobody really cares enough to fix it. It’s an ordinary name. So ordinary in fact, that when I went on vacation with my family, a gas station cashier semi-seriously suggested that my family all had fake names and wanted to see some ID.

It’s no surprise that Smith is such a popular last name. In my family, cousins carrying the Smith name number in the 50’s while the Hildebrandt side only has 12. I’ve met many people with the last name Smith, even becoming friends with a girl whose other best friend was also named Lindsey Smith. These people are everywhere, bodybuilders and successful entrepreneur.

Even the name Lindsey is pretty popular. Spellings might be different but people can’t help but tease me about sharing my name with Lindsay Lohan. We couldn’t be more different, but people like a good coincidence.

Linzey, Linsey, Lindesey, Lindsay, Linzy. All these names. All of them wrong. You wouldn’t think it would be so hard to spell a name, but with names like Braxtyn, Haiyley, or Ashleigh, most names today are just a mix of random letters, like someone took the Welsh language and threw in the dryer to tumble around, confusing teachers for years to come. My name isn’t that bad though. One of the most common. It shouldn’t be that hard. Why even spell Lindsay like that and not pronounce it with an emphasis on the end like Ron Weasley practicing his “Leviosa’s?” Lindsey and Lindsay are not even close to the same person.

I don’t even think I’m overreacting a little bit when I say I want to aggressively shake the people who can’t seem to spell my name right even when it’s at the top of the email. You should know better than to lump me in with the Lindsay’s and Linzy’s of the world.

Two men.

Two demanding majors.

Two very different lives.

At first glance, both student’s rooms have very sparse decorations, gray color schemes, and a general lack of excess personal belongings, typical of many male college students. This is one of only two similarities between the two men.

Austin is an introverted biology and chemistry double major pre-med student at Morningside College while Grady is an extroverted vocal performance major.

It may not seem like the two would have much in common, but they suffer from a similar condition known as impostor syndrome.

Often recognized as a side effect of anxiety or depression, impostor syndrome occurs when someone feels like they’ve tricked others into believing they are more successful than they are. Sufferers often do not feel like they deserve the titles they’ve earned and are afraid they will be outed as “impostors.”

While not a diagnosable condition recognized by medical books, therapists around the world are dealing with students that don’t feel like they deserve their degrees, titles, or grades in classes.

Bobbi Meister, LISW at Morningside College, deals with a lot of these issues in students but notices that mental issues like these are changing. “I think that the pressures nowadays, especially for you guys in college is more because college isn’t as a novel commodity as it used to be…there’s a lot of competition to find jobs and to somehow make yourself look better than the next person in line.”

Both Austin and Grady didn’t really experience impostor syndrome symptoms until they reached college.

“In college, I ran into the first classes that I’ve really struggled with. You know high school was pretty easy throughout, and this made me think that maybe I wasn’t “all that” or that I’ve just had it easy up till now,” Austin said.

Grady didn’t quite have the breezy high school experience that Austin had, but college presented a new set of challenges for him. “Well I mean I had just started college so that was big. I was also changing my major what seemed like every week. Other than that not much was happening,” he said.

Impostor syndrome is often an isolating experience. Many students, especially men, don’t feel like they are able to talk about their issues. Both Grady and Austin don’t tend to talk much about their struggles but Grady admits to talking things through with his fiancé.

Neither Austin or Grady have ever been to a therapist to address their issues.

Bobbi Meister says of this discrepancy, “I think that women just in general tend to report or talk about these kinds of feelings or thoughts more than men would. Maybe it’s just the societal pressure for men to, you know, have it all together and you can’t talk about those things.”

Austin is no different from other men in how he downplays his feelings. “If I have anything like anxiety or depression it’s fairly manageable and not something that has been diagnosed,” Austin states.

Through some internet research which outlines the five general categories of people who suffer from impostor syndrome, both men feel like they have a problem, but realize that self-diagnosis isn’t the best method to finding mental health.

Since impostor syndrome is not recognized as a disorder, treatment for it is often varied and individualized. Meister uses a combination of techniques to treat students that come through her door. “What I tend to practice in my work is cognitive behavior therapy and basically that’s helping the person understand how your feelings and thoughts and your behaviors are all kind of interconnected. When you make a change in one area it impacts the other area.”

To Meister, it’s all about changing the way people think about themselves and matching their perceptions to reality.

To learn more about impostor syndrome or therapy services offered at Morningside College, you can contact Bobbi Meister by phone at 712-274-5606, email at meisterb@morningside.edu, stop by her office in the lower level of the Olsen Student Center, or schedule a therapy appointment at https://calendly.com/personalcounselor.

To contact Austin email him at atn003@morningside.edu.

To contact Grady, email him at gmk003@morningside.edu.

“Where the fuck is my recorder?”

These are the words uttered by Mari Pizzini as she realizes she has lost vital recordings of interviews for class.

Frantically, she rips apart the futon she was sitting on and her bed, throwing her pillows and her inspirational bedsheets around for good measure.

Nothing.

The two friends that are also studying in her room help her in her search until her friend Alex finds the small black recorder resting on his backpack.

“If you had this the whole time I’ll kill you,” Mari told him.

Just a few minutes before, the room was turned upside down in a quest to kill a spider.

Now, thirty minutes later, there is peace in the dorm.

Mari keeps her recorder in her computer case from now on.

An almost perfect GPA.

Headed to medical school.

Ready to take on the world.

Or so it would seem.

More and more college students are dealing with impostor syndrome, known as the feeling of having tricked others into believing someone is smarter than they think they are. For some, this feeling can force them to drop out of school, giving up on their dreams and the futures they always pictured. For others, impostor syndrome simply adds to the stress, depression, and anxiety that 1 in 5 college students experience.

Impostor syndrome’s growing presence shows an alarming new normal for the next generation in the working world. In a society where social media elevates the perfect individual, is it possible for students to accept being average?

When faced with free cookies, college students never say no. In fact, their reactions almost border on overjoyed. The day-to-day drudgery of college classes and homework paired with other life responsibilities can be hard on students. Take a look at any college student on any given day and you’ll see someone who’s sleepy, stressed, or both. A bag of chocolate chip cookies is exactly what these students didn’t know they wanted.

That’s where I came in.

I set out to distribute 12 bags of chocolate chip cookies, rejection planted firmly in the front of my mind. Nobody in their right mind would accept cookies from a stranger. Everybody knows that you never accept food from someone you don’t know.

That’s where I was wrong.

Even though I was clearly sick, cough and stuffy nose included, people wanted my cookies.

I walked to the post office. I walked to the help desk on the first floor of Lewis Hall. I went into the bookstore. I walked back and forth between the buildings so much that people probably started to think I was crazy. The sun beat down on me and the box of cookies started to slip out of my hands, but I continued on.

I would never talk to these people normally. Most students just pass each other in the halls or on the sidewalks, buried in their phones or talking to their friends. People don’t go out of their way to acknowledge someone they don’t know. But I was about to face them head-on.

Naturally, these people were skeptical at first. I asked them if they wanted cookies. They seemed confused. All of the college students, and yes, I do mean all of them, asked me if I was serious before accepting the snack-sized treats.

The shock on their faces turned to smiles as I handed over the promised goods and went on my way. Everyone said thank you, but no one really asked why.

In fact, I was only rejected once by Stacie Hays, who specializes in career services and professional development at Morningside College.

“Any other day I would take the cookies, but I just started a diet program with the college,” Hays said.

The lure of free cookies does not affect everyone equally. While I started this experiment pretty pessimistic about my results, I started to enjoy making a small difference in someone’s day. I may never find myself in this situation again, but it’s good to know that cookies are a great way to break the ice.

The story I picked talks about a voodoo store in Topeka, Kansas and how the owner faces some backlash from the community but wants to expand her store and make it a center for entertainment and art in Topeka.

I would maybe start the story with this quote: “She pulls some surprising things out of the air. She can shock you.” The owner of Topeka’s only “botanica” shop has more to offer than voodoo magic according to her sister, Holly Regnier.

This lead could also work: Professionally trained “asogwe” Darlene Regnier is working to make Santeria and Voodoo accessible to followers in the Midwest.

I recently read a story about a blind man who uses echolocation to figure out where he is and where he’s going in addition to a cane. He’s been blind since the age of two, but that hasn’t stopped him from being completely independent.

This is the official lead to the original story: “The first thing Daniel Kish does, when I pull up to his tidy gray bungalow in Long Beach, California, is make fun of my driving. “You’re going to leave it that far from the curb?” he asks. He’s standing on his stoop, a good 10 paces from my car. I glance behind me as I walk up to him. I am, indeed, parked about a foot and a half from the curb.”

Because the title emphasizes that the man is blind, it was kind of shocking to think that he would know where this man parked his car. I wasn’t expecting it. It made me want to know how this was possible.

Potential new leads:

Blind does not equal helpless. At least that’s what Daniel Kish wants you to believe.

Everyone you meet seems to have an opinion on bats. Some find them cute, others find them nightmare-inducing, especially when they find one in their home. For one blind man, bats aren’t just cute or terrifying. They possess a useful skill that helps Daniel Kish live out his life in blissful independence.

Daniel Kish is a modern-day self-made man, paving the way for blind people and their quality of life.

On the longform stories site, I recently read the history behind the hideous bold-printed “grandma couches” of the 1950’s through the 1970’s.

This story has two primary characters: the “grandma,” whether that’s the author’s grandma or grandmas of the time, she is a major character in the setting and telling of the story.

The second primary character is the expert: Pam Kueber, who runs the blog Retro Renovation and offers insight into what influenced people of the time.

In terms of narrative structure, the author focuses on her own personal connection to the topic, an anecdote about her grandmother, and then leads to facts about the time period and what lead people to choose that particular style for their homes for so long. Then she brings the focus back to the grandmothers and how the couches had an impact on their lives and brought families together. I would say this structure most closely follows the Kabob style discussed by Harrower.

The author follows the themes of fashion trends, history, family, and human connections. It is sometimes rare that so many people can bond over something as simple as a couch design in their grandparents’ houses. Fashion trends will always be of interest to some, but the author takes it beyond that, explaining why it is important to know how this couch came about and the mark it left on a generation.