A while back, when thinking about student mental health, I first learned that we are all ducks. The idea is that, when we look at others, we see the equivalent of the part of a duck that is above the water – something gliding along seemingly effortlessly, making smooth forward progress. For ourselves, though, we notice how frantically we are paddling below the surface. And, because we can’t see that for others, we end up feeling like we’re the only one paddling frantically, which can fuel our imposter syndrome.
It turns out this is known as “duck syndrome” (or “floating duck syndrome”) and was first coined by Stanford University to describe the pressures faced by their students. When looking for something to link to, I learned that Stanford counsels their students “don’t be a duck”, but I’ve found the opposite to be helpful: to recognize that we are all ducks.
The duck analogy comes up pretty regularly when I talk with students and others, and people will come back to me years later saying that it still helps them to think about ducks. (This is most fun when they just shout something like “I’m a duck!” as they walk by my office, completely without context.) So, as we start a semester during which I will definitely be paddling frantically* beneath the surface, I figured I’d share the reminder that we’re all ducks. You may feel like you are the only one who is paddling frantically, and wonder if that means you don’t belong. Nope. We’re all ducks. You’ve got this!
* When looking for resources related to this, I saw a bajillion links with a quote attributed to Michael Caine: “Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but paddling like the dickens underneath.” Definitely the same idea, but without the imposter syndrome angle!
Image via Wikimedia commons user Mdf.