Admissions essay: Evan Burger

I first encountered Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, when I was fifteen. As I was cleaning my room, I came across a trunk full of my dad’s books from his college years. I read my way through this treasure trove of literature, which included Plato’s Meditations, A Brave New World, and Catch-22. But by far the most influential and interesting book was Walden. Thoreau’s account of his “year by the pond” was the single most important book I have ever read.

Put simply, I was forever changed by the concepts elucidated in Walden. I must have heard of the book before, but I never expected what I discovered inside. I fought my way through the prose and apparently unimportant parts and was rewarded with the first serious philosophy I had ever read. This book is the foundation of my study in philosophy, as well as my opinions on topics as diverse as the news media, fashion, and the meaning of life.

I realized just how much I had absorbed Thoreau’s thinking when I re-read Walden last year. I found that opinions that I considered wholly my own actually originated with Thoreau. A lot of Walden I had just assimilated into my subconscious understanding of the world. No other book has had this much power over me. Walden’s unique position as my first philosophy meant my mind was a sponge that absorbed whatever Thoreau said. After I started reading more philosophy, I evaluated rationally and, too often, accepted only what I already agreed with.

Humans are naturally interested in systems that claim to be road maps to happiness, and I am no exception. In contrast to the Buddha’s Eightfold Path or Moses’ Ten Commandments, Thoreau’s path to happiness can be explained in a single word: simplicity. He says that by eliminating unnecessary elements from our lives, we can see the inherent happiness in the world and human life. When I first read Walden, this seemed like a reasonable proposition, but as I have simplified my life (primarily due to Thoreau’s influence), the correlation between happiness and complexity seems less direct, but still mainly true.

Thoreau is defined by his non-conformity, and this also deeply influenced me. Before reading Walden, I was vaguely dissatisfied with the status quo. After reading Walden, I was ready to abandon the material culture we live in and move to a shack in the woods. While I never actually pursued this desire, I haven’t yet given up hope that a simpler, happier life is possible.

I cannot imagine what I would be like today if I had not found Walden in that chest of books. Not only did it directly and profoundly influence my personality, but it introduced me to philosophical reasoning, one of my defining interests.

The author is a Columbia College first-year.