Wherever You Go, There You Are: Book Review and Perspective
By Nick Buchler
Walking to class, walking from class, walking to the library, walking upstairs, walking downstairs. It seems that honors students cannot ever stop moving, both physically and mentally. This is even more true as we near the end of the semester and deadlines continue to pile up upon us. It’s easy to feel isolated during this time, especially thinking about the future and the requirements needed to get there. Many honors kids have adopted an “all or nothing” mindset over their years of schooling, meaning that every mistake they make or every deadline completed without perfection will destroy a chance for a successful and content future.
This, of course, is completely untrue. However, it is easy to feel lost within a community that already is high achieving as comparisons are easy to make between peers. Within my Honors College Flourishing course, nearly every individual spoke that they have experienced a form of imposter syndrome. “I think that often we fall into this type of situation even without realizing it. It has been a really bad habit for me but I’ve started to get better at recognizing it,” stated one anonymous classmate from the course. Imposter syndrome, as defined by Abigail Abrams for Time Magazine is anyone “who isn’t able to internalize and own their successes.” In addition to this, she also classifies the feeling of worthlessness of your own achievements as being a symptom of this situation.
I too used to feel this way as it can be quite challenging to understand that we each are on different paths towards different directions leaving comparisons to be an inaccurate baseline. In the summer of 2019, I was given a suggestion for a book by my therapist. I can still recall the book arriving, watching the delivery truck drive away along the sycamore lined street. At that time, I was not entirely sure that a book devoted towards mindfulness could have a genuine impact on me. Ultimately, once I was finished with the entirety of the book, it redefined the way I process and cope with emotions such as stress, anxiety, and situations none other than imposter syndrome itself.
The book Wherever You Go, There You Are written by Jon Kabbat-Zin is a meditative approach to troubled experiences. Rather than traditional meditation sessions, which many individuals find difficult to remain focused on, the book focuses on remaining in the moment through thoughts. Specifically, there is an emphasis on letting go of the future, which initially is a very hard task to approach given that we are trained since grade school to practically plot our lives out. However, there is a tranquility unlike any other once expectations ease and we can move forward working with what we have and are able to do now in the present. Jon Kabbat-Zinn speaks on this heavily throughout the pages, specifically stating “to let go means to give up coercing, resisting, or struggling, in exchange for something more powerful and wholesome which comes out of allowing things to be as they are without getting caught up in your attraction to or rejection of them, in the intrinsic stickiness of wanting, of liking and disliking.”
The book pushes readers to pause and create a shift in mindset of both self awareness but also recognition of the surrounding environment. Overall, this can truly alter the approaches an individual takes towards any experience within their life. With this change, there are a multitude of better ways that stress and difficult experiences can be addressed rather than falling victim into situations such as imposter syndrome and isolation. As Honors Students, it is imperative to remain grounded among our own accomplishments,while also acknowledging the idea that there is peace within being, and simply living.