Imposter Syndrome vs. Mature Students

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I remember the summer of 2024 like it was yesterday. Being told by my former employer that the position I had invested six months working towards was not going to be happening within the company after all. From that conversation in June, to leaving in August without another job lined up was extremely stressful. This stress impacted my mental health, which took a sharp decline. 

This experience caused me to reevaluate what I was going to do with my future, and it helped me decide one thing: I wanted to go back to school.  

I accepted my offer to an entrepreneurship course through Ontario Colleges, signed up for OSAP funding, and was mentally preparing to return to school as a mature student. Fast forward to September 2025, and I was heading into my first class at Durham College. I am now 26 years-old and compared to my time at Fanshawe College in 2018, when I was just 19 years-old, I was a lot more realistic about my college expectations. Most of my classmates in the program are eighteen or nineteen years old, and fresh from high school. Several thoughts are running through my head, but the biggest one is: “I’m an imposter.”

Who am I? Just a person. 

My name is Devin; I am 26. I am a student in the Entrepreneurship & Small Business course. Like I said, I am not an expert, just a person. Before I was a student here, I was a student at a different college, and this is where a former professor told me the name of the feeling that I could not describe, ‘Imposter Syndrome.’ 

Do You Deal With Imposter Syndrome? 

While I am not an expert (or a therapist), I do have first-hand experience with this feeling. And I know that every person will experience it differently. From my own understanding, Imposter Syndrome is characterized as a fundamental feeling that everything you have done to get to where you are was all fake, and you feel like it was handed to you. Because you feel like a fraud, you refuse to take credit, and you feel you haven’t earned that recognition.  

Another characterization is that everything you say, including the actions that you take, are only taken after tense deliberation. If you do not deliberate, and it is wrong, you start to believe everyone around you also thinks you are fake, a fraud, or an imposter.

 

The Truth Behind It 

I have been dealing with these feelings for over a decade. Through my first diploma program at a different college to my first career in radio, Imposter Syndrome has been there. After leaving my previous job in 2024, I struggled with feeling like a fraud because I did not stay. Today, I am here to tell you that those feelings are not fact, nor is it your future. It is not your truth! 

These feelings can go away, but if they do not, that is okay too. As facts are stronger than lies. I am 26 and back in school because I needed a change, my thoughts and feelings needed to change.

I can honestly say that going back and reinvesting in myself was the best decision I have ever made. So, if you are feeling like a fraud, please come back, read this post, or talk to someone you trust. They can help.

Mental health matters, and so do you!