We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful SOFIA MIFSUD. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with SOFIA below.
SOFIA, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
I have a long-standing relationship with imposter syndrome – her and I know each other very well. It sometimes feels as though I was born with fully developed emotions surrounding my being undeserving of everything and anything I worked for or received. I have felt the smallest in every room, and have spent all my life apologising for being asked to be at the table. It is only now that I am truly beginning to see a way past it, although I suspect I will always feel like an imposter in some way. As a young woman in film and photography, it is no shock that I felt this way. I was often told very directly by men who were supposed to be colleagues of mine that I was in no way good enough to be standing near them.
Being talked down to for so long generally leads to very little self worth. Now however, through long arduous days and nights trying to convince myself that I deserve to be at the table, even if most days I have to fake it, and through weekly therapy sessions so focused on building my self worth as a woman and artist, I am finally beginning to see some light beyond the imposter syndrome tunnel. It is also somewhat a product of defiance – imposter syndrome has already taken so many opportunities from me, and I really and truly refuse to allow it to steal and more of my time.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Well, I am a writer, poet, photographer and director, and I am also an immigrant here in the United States. Minnesota has been my home for just over a year now and I have never felt so creatively fulfilled as I do here. My stories are most greatly inspired by an amalgamation of philosophy, folklore and the metaphysical – with some magic sprinkled in. My journey with my mental health of course is always ever-present in there too, and when I write or capture imagery is when I do my most successful healing work.
I have had a most difficult love-hate relationship with social media, and have actually recently found a great way to balance this out and allow myself an outlet to create and support myself in a healthier way. I just opened up a patreon page, where people can become patrons of my art and gain access to all kinds of exclusive pieces and BTS footage and poetry that I have not had the space to share before. This is also where I will be announcing and discussing my plans for a first script and short film in the works.
https://patreon.com/sofiawritesthings
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I believe the most impactful years for my artistic expression were my teenage years. Being a very quiet and scared teenager, I found myself besotted with stories: with books and moving image and paintings. I wanted to consume it all with a hungry and voracious intent that never really went away. My adoration of art and creative expression went hand in hand with my love for philosophy and introspection and questions. I feel very fortunate to have released a great deal of my ego very early on, and allowing myself to be content in the notion that I knew absolutely nothing, further allowed me to be absolutely in love with learning and absorbing information. It is, in the end, all knowledge that was most impactful on my storytelling and my journey – knowledge and questions and the great Why is exactly what I make and do everything for.
It is actually quite easy to hone these skills of wanting to learn. Simply never take knowledge for granted, read all the fantasy novels you can –
and always, always ask a librarian first.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
This is extremely difficult and entirely easy all at once. Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Edible Woman’ changed my life. Whilst the story is to this day one of the best I have ever read, it was the way Atwood spoke to me as a reader that changed my life. After reading Handmaid’s Tale, I consumed every one of her books in a matter of weeks. Once again, I was hungry, it felt as though she was telling my story in snippets and secret messages – it felt as though she was telling me ‘write’.
I will let you read the book yourself for the nuggets of wisdom, and share only one:
“She had caught herself lately watching herself with an abstracted curiosity, to see what she would do.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sofiamifsud.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sofiawritesthings/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sofiawritesthings
- Other: Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/sofiawritesthings
Image Credits
Models: myself @elegy_rose @lokiravenwood @saeteeshunleashed @misplacedsconnie_model @seeingx.sage @skallie.c @funeralxrose
