Gertie Mae A.

Cuico BSA-1 October 17, 2018

Mr. Alejandro N. Galang Jr. 12:00-1:00pm MWF

Our Own Kind of Reality

We create our own reality. As the world revolves around a chain of perception, so does
our reality. What we view is real and based on how we perceive it. Every individual have their
own reality, on how they view their surroundings and how they give meaning and purpose to it.
Each one of us lives our lives differently. The way we talk, dress, drink, eat, walk, everything; it’s
the same with how we think. Each of us has different perspectives of our lives, some are happy,
depressed, anxious, or excited; it’s also the same with our reality. Countries prepare missiles or
gunships because they view other countries as hostile or are in conflict with them. Students
study their past lessons to graduate and acquire a job to get a better life. People participate in
charity cases as an act of philanthropy to promote human welfare. That is their reality because
that is how they perceive it; that is how they conceptualize it. How? Do people construct their
reality based on how they are nurtured or through phenomenological observation?

At first we live our life according to how we were taught as a child. John Locke once
stated “a child’s mind is a tabula rasa” or a blank slate or canvas. We give meaning to our
environment according to how we are nurtured. Our parents are our first teacher, everything
they taught us is how we see our small world. There are different kinds of parents with different
parenting styles, it is up to us to understand it and apply it to our daily lives. That is what makes
us unique. Our parents teach us the basics of survival, such as eating, and also values and
religion. They also taught us that things become what they are based on how we make it into
some things. We see a person sweeping the downtown streets, some of us view that person as
poor and probably has to work to feed his family. Others might view that person differently; he is
in that kinds of situation because he did not had the proper education to acquire a decent job.
Each of us have different perspectives in life, different perceptions of situations and that is our
reality because that is what was spoon-fed to us when we were still little. As we step to the next
stage of our life, being an adolescent, our curiosity peaks; there’s starvation for new knowledge,
the desire to know. We conceptualize our own beliefs, our own reality. This is the time where we
observe and infer. We view our own reality according to how we conclude the situations
happening around us. We construct our own reality through phenomenological and direct
observation. What we see and experience is what we conclude as real. We say it is real
because it exists. We give out observations and conclude them on how we see it. For example,
we see a person on the streets talking to himself and may freeze like a statue for a period of
time, some say that it’s because the person suffers from catatonia or rather mentally ill, some
might see that person as a crazy person. They may have different perceptions about the person
on the streets, but of those perceptions are facts according to the people observing, it doesn’t
matter which of those conclusions the person acquired. A person’s perception on reality is not
just based on the present situations happening in his or her environment, but it can also be for
the future. A philanthropist chose to help those in need to help them have a better life, so he
participates in charity cases. With his act of generosity, he can help someone in need achieve
their dream and make it a reality.