It is ok not to be a superwoman. This is a hard lesson to grasp for me. Especially because I feel like society teaches us the opposite. I have just finished my last fall semester, and for the first time, I felt truly done and burnt out. How am I 20 years old, and I am experiencing burn out? I feel like that is something that I should be feeling at 40 years old. I have not even begun my career yet. How am I feeling this way? What I have learned is that I have this need to be a superwoman. I am not alone in this either. I think society shows that the only way to have the best happy life is to be a superwoman. There is an emphasis on being able to do everything and be good at everything. As I was thinking about how burnt I felt, I kept thinking of even though I was feeling this way; I still am not doing enough. I remember talking to a friend, and I told him that I have this desire and eagerness to be a superwoman. I need to be able to do it all and all by myself, or else how am I supposed to be successful or get where I really want. This is something that I struggle with, the concept that I physically am not capable of doing it all and being good at it all. I saw this tweet that said, “Social media has me thinking I am failing at life at 22 years old.” This is it! This is the feeling that I feel all the time. This is why I feel like I need to be superwoman because I already feel like I am behind. If I can figure out a way to do everything and anything, I will have it all together, and I won’t fail. I think a lot of young adults feel this way. We live in a society that says you have to hustle without making it look like you are hustling at all. Your life should look like it did not hurt a finger. We only are seeing the best moments without seeing the struggle or work that goes in. We are also living in a society that defines success and happiness by working so hard there is burnt out. This is not new information either. I discussed these thoughts with my mom, and she reminded me that this is not a new feeling. She exclaimed how she had felt this way as well. She told me that women have been feeling this way for a while now, but it is now at a younger age due to social media. So why is it that all of us feel the need to be superwoman, and why can’t we? As young women who are hungry to work and aspire to work, we feel that we are not going to be taken seriously if we can not do it all. When I was taking time to figure out why I felt this way, it stemmed from a fear of not being good enough. I have to do it all so that I can be just enough. I think a lot of us feel this way. We take on so much in fear that we are not taking on enough at all. Society makes superwoman look attainable, but it’s not, and that is ok. When I was burnt out, I was not really happy because I was not even satisfied with the quality of the work that I was doing. All I felt was angrier because I was tired, but I was not even thrilled. What I have learned is that, unfortunately, I can not do it all. I will physically never be able to do it all, but I can do what I can because what I can is enough.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Oregon chapter.