How to (not) brag about your success

I have been finding myself to be very proactive. I am on my year abroad, doing classes that do not count towards my degree, and lately I have been feeling… free. Free to do things that are not academia, free to conquer the world as I see it (I just came back from a week traveling solo, which just felt like a breath of fresh air to me).

Lately, I have also applied for internships that I have been interested in applying for a long time. It started with my inner thoughts telling me that going to the University of Bologna in the second term was not such a good idea, and that it might be better to search for an internship somewhere in Italy. Nevertheless, I conquered this fear and now I have been living in a beautiful apartment in the historic centre!

Nevertheless, with a lot of internships turning me down, I also gained successes. I have been a student blogger for my university for about a year now, and I never thought that the feeling of writing what I was thinking would make me feel this way. After a couple of articles, I was craving to write more. The second I had some free time at home or at university, my computer would be switched on and words would just flow on the newly-opened word document.

Well, as I said before, I consider myself to be a proactive person, that likes to get things done. I wanted to do something to be proud of in my second year at Warwick, and with that came my application to be Vice President of a society, something I am very proud of. We did talks, conferences, a summit and lots and lots of fundraisers. With that said, other opportunities came to me as I sought them. And I was getting happier and happier. Then, during my year abroad, I founded an amazing society, UN Women UK Warwick, and was able to direct our team from miles away.

I want to say that I am an extrovert: I have always liked talking to people, making friends (back when I was solo traveling, I became friends with some strangers and we went on a Halloween bar crawl!). That being said, I enjoy telling people about my life (maybe a bit too much sometimes!). However, when it comes to success, I try to limit myself to saying the bare minimum: I am very proud for what I am doing, I love how I am doing all of these things. But how do I stop feeling so guilty when I tell someone about my successes?

I wanted to write this blog as I am at this point in my life where all of my friends are going into different directions: it is not school anymore, people can choose where they want their life path to go from. I would say, to myself and to others, that there will be people that will be happy with your success as there will be people that will be jealous of it.

It is clear that in this life people are competing: to have the best jobs, to be the best person they can be. You are competing against people as you are competing against yourself. You push yourself into reaching those goals that you set yourself. So why feel weird when you tell people about your success?

I think it all comes down to how you say it. Some people might think you are bragging, that you know you are good. But remember: you are good. Amazing. You should be up there, at the top, with all the work you are doing! Congratulate yourself on being the best you can be without suffocating yourself, and remember that you wanted this!

If you do not want to tell people about your achievements, then do not. But think about the reason why. The people that love you will be happy for you, ecstatic! As Kris Jenner once said: “You are doing great, sweetie!”.