Navigating the demands of academia can be overwhelming for a junior faculty member. Tenure and promotion expectations suggest profiles that are valued and deemed worthy of advancement. Universities exist as a breeding ground for comparisons, which can lead to a struggle for legitimacy and a desire for validation, ultimately contributing to the impostor syndrome. Consequently, individuals may feel pressured to conform to or exceed the output of publicized images of success to declare fit and prove competence. This chapter is a reflection on the journey of an African American scholar who discovered very early that asserting her voice in determining significance was an important first step in defining the focus of her scholarship. In order to achieve goals that she considered important, she needed to establish an identity that was defined by what was personally and professionally meaningful, which inspired the mission of social justice that gave purpose to her scholarship. Drowning out the background noise was the strategy through which narratives qualifying certain modes and areas of scholarship were silenced, opening the door for her to establish her research agenda, which focused upon examining the role of systemic inequities in establishing unequal playing fields for historically marginalized communities in STEM.