Put Into Practice - The Perceptual Process

I just got out of my Calculus 1210 class, and I felt like my brain was about to shut down. I knew I couldn’t go home just yet to rest because I had assignments, and a test that was due the following day. So I had to stay back and practice, but the thing about trying to study when you’re tired is that you get frustrated pretty quickly. And I did. I was getting angry and irritated and just really tired. I put my head down unto the table and I remember that I just kept thinking “why does this have to be so hard?”  A few tables away from me, I saw a group of students studying calculus too and thus began my dilemma.  Do I go ask to join them or do I just go home?

I look up from the table and I see that one of the persons that’s studying in the group is a girl I’d noticed in class before but never really gave much thought to. She seemed to be about 5 6”, she had a septum piercing, and had tattoos all over her arms and my mind immediately went “nope”. Then I stopped myself and wondered why I had thought “no’ in the first place. I believe that we’ve all been programmed to instantly make judgments, but being able to pause and slow down our perceptual process can make all the difference in communication.

So I stopped and I reflected upon myself. I am different. Anyone looking at me can tell that I’m definitely not from around here. It is in how I look, how I talk, my mannerisms. I wonder what people think when they look at me. Do they see a “black girl with the headpiece?” or do they see “just another girl”? Because I live in Saint George Utah, I understand that people see the former much more than they see the latter. I then knew that it is highly probable that people will make assumptions about me. I am the foreigner, the alien, and if I understand this, there’s no reason to make assumptions on another person like that. So I stood up and I walked over to the table and said “Do you guys mind? I need a little help with my math homework and revisions”. Said girl whose name I learned was Macy, was the first person to tell me “sure” and it was a bit easier from then on. I was able to work with other people which helped me better learn concepts I was struggling with in the first place. Although I had to leave not quite long after because I was wiped out, I felt like I had accomplished a lot. I was able to get her number and just like that, I had a study group I could study with. And God knows I really need that for my Calculus.

When I think of the quote “don’t judge a book by its cover”, I think first of books. Like don’t judge a book just because the cover looks boring, but that’s not the true meaning of the quote. It means to not make assumptions either good or bad, to actually find out, and to delve further. One thing I learned from this Put into Practice is that it is very difficult to slow down the perceptual process. The professor said it takes all of 4 seconds for it to happen. One thing we can definitely do is to contemplate on it. Try to understand why we made the assumption in the first place, or understand the root of our thoughts relating to the matter at hand. Maybe if we do this, we can reprogram our minds to slow down and then fully grasp the perceptual process.

Put Into Practice - The Authentic Self

What is  “the authentic self”? 

I love writing. Although, I don’t usually write for fun, I find that I like putting ideas down on a page, and if I’m asked to write for a class, like writing an essay for example, it is something that comes easily to me. Which was why I couldn’t understand why I had major issues in doing this assignment. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do exactly. Then I decided to treat this assignment as a sort of personal project. A place where I am not restricted to a particular scope, and I can just write what I want and I feel like this can serve as a step towards finding my authentic self. 

Oscar Wilde said “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation”. I believe this to be true. There are many people who mimic other people in the things they do, the way they talk. And as we become more exposed to the various facets of the media, we lose our authentic self and become someone else. It can be hard for one to be one’s authentic self. This is because many people don’t remember their authentic self. We learned in class that we are our most authentic selves when we were little kids and as we grew older and became involved consciously with the society, we are subconsciously morphed into a false self. 

To be our authentic self, I believe we have to be willing to let go of our false self. Doing this will require self- disclosure. Self-disclosure is very important to be able to unravel our authentic self. Self- disclosure to other people is good, but I believe self-disclosure to oneself, is even better. By being able to take a step back and understand ourselves, or what we think of ourselves, not what we were taught to think of ourselves, we begin to truly understand our authentic self. This is by no means an easy task. It is very easy to be someone else, to be perceived as someone cooler, or more confident. Although that works for a while, we find out after sometime that, that isn’t who we are supposed to be.

Self-disclosure is essential to knowing our authentic self because only when we are able to allow ourselves be vulnerable are we able to understand who we really are. When we take off the masks and allow ourselves to feel vulnerable, we know ourselves in depth. And this can be really hard, it is not a part of human nature to permit oneself to feel helpless in front of other people. What we also fail to realize is that we become stronger by embracing our vulnerability. I believe self-disclosure, vulnerability and authenticity work hand in hand. When we self-disclose to other people, we put ourselves in a vulnerable position and this shows us a bit of our authentic self.

What is my authentic self? Honestly, I do not know. These past few days in class has helped open my eyes to that fact. Shakespeare said: “this above all, to thine own self be true”. I would like to embody this quote as an important part of my life. I would like to believe that some part of me is authentic, but I would also like to fully discover my authentic self. By being honest with myself about things I like, things I like to do, and the things I want, I can start the journey to knowing my authentic self.