On and Off Campus Blog: Getting to a Good Place
By Yancheng Zhao ‘26
As I’m in the middle of senior fall, I will do anything not to think about college applications. Watching TV shows and movies is tried and tested. Last Thanksgiving break, I took the time to watch the entirety of The Good Place by Michael Schur, which just recently left Netflix. It was a show that I had started but never finished, but when my 11th grade English class’s summer reading book was Schur’s How to Be Perfect, a book he wrote to pass along the knowledge he learned while researching for the show, I knew I had to go back and finish what I had started.
The show centers around Eleanor Shellstrop, a flawed, self-centered Arizonian. She, along with three others—Chidi, an ethics and philosophy professor; Tahani, a philanthropist and socialite; and Jason, a failed DJ from Florida—have all died and are now in the afterlife’s “Good Place,” a utopia for the select few humans who have lived the best lives on Earth. Everyone else? Off to the Bad Place.
Eleanor quickly realizes there has been some sort of mistake: She isn’t the clown-loving lawyer who went on relief trips to Ukraine that everyone thinks she is. She, simply put, wasn’t a good person. In fact, her real job on Earth was to sell fake medicine to the elderly. Wanting to properly earn her place to avoid being sent to the Bad Place, she enlists the help of her soulmate, Chidi, to teach her how to become a “good person.”
Over time, Eleanor starts to improve through her philosophy lessons with Chidi. One of her improvements is forming closer relationships with the people around her, especially Chidi. On Earth, Eleanor was unable to create genuine and meaningful connections. Her divorced parents had neglected her, leading Eleanor to raise and rely only on herself, seeing others as a way to get hurt and abandoned. However, in the Good Place, Eleanor can no longer shy away from the fact that she is not a good person. She has to seek out help.
I’m not someone who likes asking for help. Sure, I ask when I’m confused in class, and I bother my teachers plenty when writing an essay, but I can’t get myself to talk about what’s happening in my life. Multiple people have described me as Chidi—someone who is indecisive, overthinks, and obsesses over the right thing to do. However, I also see some of myself in Eleanor—afraid to be vulnerable, judged by others, and not being good enough.
Relationships are a core part of the show, and the characters’ time in the afterlife is used to show that humans are capable of change. Eleanor is not the only one who improves. We learn that each of the four humans is flawed in some way, but as the group gets closer together, they help each other become better versions of themselves. Through the afterlife, the characters experience many versions of themselves, but in every single one, they find each other and help each other grow.
In the same way, my friends have changed me for the better. While I am certainly not perfect at communicating, I’ve learned to share more than I have in the past. It’s not easy to talk about your problems, especially when it reveals some of your shortcomings. But it sure does feel better when you know you’re not alone. I hate talking about my problems, but I do want to be a better person.
People can change. We interact with so many different people—parents, siblings, teachers, friends, classmates, staff, coworkers, and more—and The Good Place teaches us that the relationships we foster affect how we grow. I’ve had the privilege of having amazing friends and family who support me through my smart and stupid decisions. In turn, I’ve been able to believe in myself.
