Member-only story

Does Success Make You Less Humble?

A tale of slight narcissism from yours truly

Hoang Samuelson
5 min readSep 9, 2021
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Think about all the great moments of your life. Your first kiss. Your first car. Your first job. Your high school prom. Your college graduation. Your wedding day. Your firstborn. The list goes on. We all have those moments where everything seems to be going just right, where you think, “Nothing is better than this.” And for many of us, that thought is usually followed by a hint of gratitude. We think to ourselves how lucky we are to be in that position, that there are many others who would die to be in our shoes.

Recently, I had one of those moments.

I’d learned that an essay I wrote had been selected by a famous author who sponsored a writing contest last month. I had put my name in the ring, never imagining that she would select my essay. The winners (there are five) will get their essay published on the author’s website, along with a few thousand dollars. Whew. It’s an amazing opportunity, not just to be discovered, but to be supported by an author whose writing I greatly admire is truly an astonishing moment of success for me.

So, naturally, upon receiving the news via email (she even used her personal email (!)), I went on Instagram and posted the screenshot of my “success.” At the end of my IG post, I also added a “p.s.” I added…

--

--

Hoang Samuelson
Hoang Samuelson

Written by Hoang Samuelson

Features Editor @ Chowhound. Former lead editor @BooknBrunch.com. Writer of food, family and fiction. Based in Portland, OR. More at hoangsamuelson.com

No responses yet