After a short hiatus, the “Ask Ellen” column has returned to The Athenaeum. Follow along for answers to all of your most pressing questions.
What is your key to confidence?
First of all, thank you for thinking I am confident. I must be doing something right. I have as many insecurities as the next girl (or guy), but I genuinely just say what I want to and try to be as honest as I can. If you are loud and have an opinion about something, people assume you are confident. I would consider myself a confident person and I give that credit to my parents, particularly my mom. I feel like everyone has a role model they look up to, and the reason I can be confident that I will be able to achieve my goals is because my role model has told me I am able to. My mom has given me so much confidence because I like to follow her lead and she is a very confident woman, and for good reason. My parents have supported me through everything and I have seen how not having this foundation can cripple someone’s confidence. This does not make someone less than, it just means they might need to find a new role model that makes them feel confident and as though they can be and do anything they want. Knowing who you are is a major key to confidence and only recently did I fully know. Throughout school I didn’t conform as much with all the other girls which was why I felt like I needed to discover who I was, and this took a while. Knowing who you are gives you confidence in your own skin.
Ellen Merchant is a fourth-year Politics and English double major. If you feel like asking her a question, you can ask it right here.