Letter Thirty-Seven: Dear Criticism Coward

I also would not classify what is being said to you as constructive criticism, the type of feedback that is worth believing is presented to you in good faith as something that can help you improve; that is not what is happening here.

What is being said to you is just criticism; unkind, destructive, and unhelpful.

It makes complete sense to me that you’re not feeling confident in yourself and your abilities after hearing comments like those. Even once is enough to leave a deep impact, let alone these comments being a pattern.

Letter Seven: Dear Stage Frightened Undergrad

You have no control over what people’s impression of you will be or what their threshold for ‘impressive’ is. Striving to be impressive leads you down a road of chasing external validation. Elusive validation at that. I would encourage you to shift your mindset for this talk to connecting with people.