Reminder- this series is roughly based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. In this series, Alice is the student and the other characters are actors in the student’s life.

Nope. It isn’t Alice’s head that needs to be lopped off. It is the Queen of Hearts.

In this post, we are going to pretend that the Queen of Hearts is the little whisper of self-doubt that all students have. Regardless of where they are in the college/university/degree journey.

ALL students have that little voice that whispers to them that they are not good enough.

That they are only in the program they are in because of pity.

That the next test/essay/research paper will be their last.

Because how can they last?

Do they really think they can finish?

Do they really think no one is laughing at them and their audacity for thinking they are on par with their classmates?

And, if they finish by the grace of the teachers, how do they think they will pass the next test? In nursing, this is the NCLEX, the national boards that assess a nurse’s readiness to practice safely.

It is insidious, that little voice in all students’ heads.

In the book, Alice draws the Vorpal sword, which allows her to defeat the Jabberwocky by cutting off its head and defeating the Jabberwocky allows her to defeat the Queen of Hearts.

The key to defeating the student’s Queen of Hearts little voice is to draw their own Vorpal sword.

This is gonna get a little metaphysical but bear with me.

The Queen of Hearts yells constant threats. Off with his head, off with her head. But no heads are actually lopped off except the Jabberwocky. She is all bluster and vim, but in the end, Alice proves her to be thin and unsubstantial. Because the Queen of Hearts is only a playing card. In naming her to be inconsequential Alice defeats her.

The little voice in students’ heads (and I am not immune) can be defeated in such a manner. It is about recognizing the voice and knowing that the voice is not telling the truth which allows the student to defeat the voice.

This is not an easy battle, (see me in my fourth degree program and still struggling at times with the voice), but naming the voice and recognizing that it is self-doubt at its heart allows us to ignore the voice. Ignoring the voice leads to its defeat, just like paying a lot of attention to the voice allows it to grow.

My best advice is to talk to other students and have conversations about defeating self-doubt. There is safety in numbers and when one student is having a bad day, the others can serve as a support system to buoy them up.

Above all, give yourself grace.

This is new. This is difficult. But there have been others before you.

Talk to them. Talk to your classmates. Find the voice and squash it like a little bug!

This is where I put in a mantra- the only way out is through.