Trapped In The Margins

Note: This post was originally posted on my now deleted substack on October 31, 2025.

I am currently taking college courses online via Zoom almost a decade after completing graduate school. It has truly been a humbling experience, as I am no longer the youngest person in the room. I have wisdom that I did not have years ago but I must admit that my gusto for education has waned. Yet, something shifted for me last night during class. I decided to speak up and thank the professor for all that she has done for myself and my fellow classmates. I took the time to admit that I no longer write at my full academic potential out of fear as being mistaken for AI. 

My fear of writing like AI has become so prevalent that I no longer write at a graduate school level. My current writing has declined to the point where I currently write at a high school level. This is truly ironic because I was writing at a college freshman level in high school. This is where my professor said something so simple yet profound. She told me not to dim my light. She went on to say that I earned my degrees and I should show my knowledge off. My appreciation speech went on to garner some comments from my classmates in our private group chat. The comments were mostly positive but the one that stuck out the most was “idk why would you do badly on purpose?”

My classmate’s message initially made me laugh but then I began to think about it more carefully. He misconstrued my words. I never stated that I do badly on purpose. I said that I don’t put forth my full effort into writing for the class. I have come to realize that I no longer put any effort into my writing. I just write and post. I don’t have anything of substance to say but I say it anyway. I want this substack to change things. This is where I will find my confidence to write at a graduate school graduate level again.

This is an experiment in writing well and saying something of merit. May I learn to not dim my light and maybe even brag about it.