Let’s talk about imposter Syndrome, education, & eliteism.

Growing up , my family was....not awesome. I don’t know where my high school diploma is. I don’t care.

Displaying that I was smart, or being proud of my education meant I was being disrespectful to my parents (somehow?)

When I graduated college, I didn’t walk. Nobody knew. Nobody said congrats. My diploma sits in my fire safe.

I avoided taking any cert courses until recently bc I thought I wasn’t good enough. Not smart enough. Whatever.

I even sort of pushed higher ed away. I didn’t learn much in my bachelors program (read: nothing...I learned nothing I didn’t already know that a decade in tech didn’t already teach me).

But other people who also had degrees were still better than me in my head.

Now, being in the position I am at work. In life. In my career, people have been telling me that I AM good enough.

All you InfoSec people post pictures of your degrees and certs, and achievements. Your 5k medals and challenge coins, and you’re not pompous.

Hell, almost all the people I follow seem like SUPER dope people and whether any of y’all know it, or whether you know me, y’all inspire me to do better simply by being who you are. ( @Infosec_Taylor and @gabsmashh come up in my feed most with their positivity and cert enthusiasm)

You better yourselves, and raise others up with you, if nothing else, then by example

My certificate from CompTIA arrived in the mail today. Its nice. I’m going to frame it. I’m going to frame my college diploma. I’m going to be proud of my achievements. They’re going on my wall

But you don’t need to have the same (or any) for me to see you as an equal. Do you have a high school diploma, no college, and no certs, but love InfoSec and are great at it? You’re my equal. Maybe even my superior.

Education doesn’t make anybody better than anybody else.

And it’s taken me until I was today years old to recognize that I can be proud of my own achievements without it detracting from others personal achievements (whatever they may be) as long as my actions reflect positivity and I try to help.

/FIN