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.