Published in The Edinboro Spectator: Sept. 20, 2012
Eight years ago, when I was in high school back in Philly, I
had an English teacher named Mr. Brown, who always used a famous quotation that
stuck with me. It seemed that almost
every day he’d tell us “Always remember: Wherever you go, there you are”.
Now at first, being a young high school student, I thought
to myself, “What the heck does that even mean?”
But today, as a grad student, getting closer and closer to
being in “the real world” it makes more sense than ever.
To me, that quote can be summed up in two words, “Be
present.”
Now when I say “be present”, I don’t mean just “showing up”
or just “being there” because these days it seems that people can be in one
place physically, but be in a totally different place mentally. I’m talking about putting full focus into absolutely
everything that we do.
We all seen people who haven’t learned how to be fully
present, like people go to college physically, but live with a high school
mentality, or the person who goes to class on Friday, but spends all 50 minutes
of class with his/her mind on the party on Saturday.
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| Kudos, young scholar. |
One problem is that we often we get caught up in a mindset
of anticipation, where we constantly tell ourselves, “I can’t wait until this happens”
or “Once I go here everything will be
fine” and we forget to focus on being present in the present.
We also have to realize that another thing which inhibits
many people from being present is the world of distractions in which we live. We
have smartphones that can do almost everything besides cook our breakfast, we
have addictive social networking sites, we get non-stop text and emails, and we
also live in celebrity-obsessed culture in which we focus on the lives of
people that we don’t even know.
But it seems that the more that we try to get connected to
the rest of the world, the more we fail to connect with ourselves and the world
that exists right in front of us.
One of my favorite examples of someone who know how to be
fully present is NBA player, Kobe Bryant. When the LA Lakers play, whether he’s
out on the court, taking a rest on the bench, or he’s injured, his mind is on
nothing but the game.
I remember watching one game last season where comedian,
Chris Rock, was on the Lakers bench and awkwardly found out about Kobe’s focus.
In the middle of the game, The Lakers had a comfortable lead
and Kobe was resting on the bench. Chris Rock, who sat two seats down from Kobe,
attempted to tell him a joke while he was watching the game.
The TV cameras caught the moment perfectly, Chris Rock slightly
leaned over to Kobe and went on for about 20 seconds telling a joke which was
inaudible to TV viewers. But, Kobe, who was sitting inches away from Rock and
obviously within earshot of him, didn’t even look at Rock nor acknowledge his
joke.
As awkward as that moment might have been for Chris Rock, (who
played the moment off well by laughing and turning away), anyone who
understands how intense Kobe’s focus is, understood his reaction.
When someone is fully present and focused, anything that
doesn’t have to do with the task at hand is seen as irrelevant.
This should serve as a lesson to what we have to do as
college students, administrators, professors, and just as human beings in
general, we have to know how to become fully engrossed in what we’re doing in
order for us to be effective at what we’re doing.
In our jobs, our classes, our relationships, and in our
lives, we have to master the art of being present and being focused, because
just “being there” isn’t enough.
As my old English teacher, Mr. Brown would say, “Always
remember: Everywhere you go, there you are.”
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