Project Web Essay

We don’t See Things as They Are, We See Them as We Are

“Expectant of greater things, we try climbing higher and higher; an effort that cost us much, leaving us short of breath to find only the ground below is much prettier”-Phillip Pulfrey

There’s a place in my hometown called the Top of Temecula; I’m not sure how high up it is, but the view from the top is breathtaking. The drive starts by going up a curvy mountain and you can see the city lights start to look like twinkling stars. To get to the top you go through a street that has no lights and the road is barely big enough to fit two cars. It’s all worth it though. The view is the whole town stretched out across for miles. I never thought of my hometown as pretty, until after seeing it from “The Top” it is amazing. This experience is just like the quote above by Phillip Pulfrey. This quote is saying that people want so much out of life that they keep striving for more. They don’t really notice what they have, it is always what others have and what they don’t have, “the grass is always greener on the other side”. The quote shows that if you take a different view of things you’ll realize what you have and appreciate it more. This made me reflect on my hometown and I started to appreciate it more; it also made me think of how I started to look at things with a different perspective. I got a chance to look at life differently during my college English class we have had plenty of assignments where I had to look at things from a different perspective. This class has helped me see the world with different eyes. It started by looking at poems and lyrics differently by understanding the underlying meaning of them, to find the story in every painting and photograph and how perception changes the things and the spaces we view.

View of Temecula from The Top

I’m the kind of person that can get to one place to the next and not remember any street names. I know when to turn by certain landmarks or buildings but I couldn’t tell you what is next to that landmark or building. I’m the kind of person that can’t tell you what I saw walking to campus besides the basics: trees, cars, and the school buildings. If you were to ask me how many cars were parked on the side of the street I wouldn’t know, or the color of the guy’s backpack that was walking in front of me the entire time, I couldn’t tell you. A lot of people today seem to be just like me and don’t really notice the little things in life. What I noticed as I walk to school, I don’t look at the things around me and I’m not the only one. However, it’s a different story when I go hiking I take everything in. I seem to be aware of everything and the beauty of things. That is because when I’m hiking I look at it with a different perception than as if I was walking to school. Perception is awareness of things and the understanding of things, the knack of taking into by means the mind. A lot the times the familiar are the things that most people never notice; they seem to forget about them, because they always know it is going to be there. Taking a step back and looking at everything you pass by makes you realize the things you have and how much you appreciate everything. By looking at things differently depending on the situations it can become positive or negative, the glass half full or the glass half empty.

My Rock!

There are experiences in everyone’s life where they can look at a situation positively or negatively, it happens every day. I always tried to look at things on the more positive side but I ended up looking at things with a more negative outlook. During my college English class it helped me with looking at things from a different view even if I didn’t agree with it. One day first semester, my professor asked the class to grab a rock from her table. Then she asked us questions about our rock a few were the color, shape, size, taste and why we picked that rock. By the end of the exercise I had a page and half written about the rock. The point of the exercise was to show us that if we could write about a rock then we could write about anything. It was to show us to take a step back to view things and then continue on, I do this with all my writings now. I say it’s the Rock Method! It makes my writing experience a more positive one, because I now if I can write about a rock I can write about anything. It also made me look at myself differently as a writer. I used to doubt myself and always put myself down. After I started to use the “Rock Method” I realized I didn’t give myself enough credit that I deserved. After this I became more confident in my writing, and I’m glad that I viewed myself differently and it ended up to better myself.

Student Lounge

A different way my professor had my class look at things with a different perspective, she assigned us to go to a public place and view how people interact with each other and how the environment of the place helps or not. This made me step back and look at an everyday place I go to and see how people interact towards each other and the atmosphere the environment creates. I went to the student lounge in my dorm building, and what amazed me was how nice people really are. As well as people go out of their comfort zone to connect with other people; it is something that helps the environment become a more home like feeling, and I wouldn’t except most of the students to do so. It was a very interesting assignment and it made me look at other places differently, I started to notice the vibes of certain places gave off and how the people reacted. From these two assignments I have started to look at things and places from a different view. It makes me notice more which I think is a good thing. I’ve become more grateful of the things I have. Throughout the year, I came across a video of a group of people that wanted to make taking the stairs more fun than riding the escalator. During the night they made the stairs look like a piano keyboard. They wired the stairs to make it sound just like a piano. The next day when people noticed the piano stairs everyone started to use the stairs instead of the escalator; they even tried to make songs with it. This shows that by seeing the stairs in a different form, when normally the stairs can make people cringe at the thought of climbing, it becomes a better experience.

                                                      Video: The Piano Stairs

                                                    http://vimeo.com/38341434
                   Link: Spinnovation video. Another example of looking with a different view and
                            the creativity that comes out of it.

Picture I did my assignemt on.

           Besides from noticing the little things in my life and being aware of my surroundings, I’ve come to try and find the deeper meaning of things. I would never analyze something on my own before, but not so long ago my English professor had us analyze a picture. In this assignment I had to describe the picture which was a black and white photo with a rundown house in the background, trash and broken pieces of wood in the yard, and a little girl in the front of the frame wearing a crown with her hands placed together looking up at the sky. From this picture I found a little girls story. This little girl is looking up towards the sky; she’s looking for an answer. With her hands together, she still believes in faith, she believes change will come. I would of never of figured this out without looking from a different perspective. From this picture on when I saw a painting or photograph I would try to find out why was this so important that it had to be captured. There is something that is truly magical when there is a picture that has captured your attention, and has brought you some inspiration, a closer feeling towards your spiritually or a feeling of connection. That can’t happen if you don’t ever notice it in the first place that means there must be some form of looking from a different view. Go beyond the surface. Another way I went beyond the surface was a essay I had to write in English class. I had to analyze the deeper meaning of lyrics. I came to find that the song I chose, “By Your Side, by Tenth Avenue North, meant a lot more to me than my favorite song for the week. I came to find that the lyrics of the song brought me comfort whenever I was down and that I was never alone. I’m glad that I had to write that paper, it opened my eyes to something that meant a lot more to me than I realized.

Video: "By Your Side" by Tenth Avenue North (Lyric Video)

http://www.geekologie.com/2010/04/real-people-painted-to-look-li.php
Link: Real people painted to look like real paintings. A different view of piantings.

Video: Go Beyond the Cover: Behind the Sences. Another example of looking with a different perspective.

    By looking at things from a different perspective have it has shown me how lucky I am. I have started to view things in my life with more appreciation than before. It’s not so much the big things like a roof over my head, bed to sleep in or food to eat; I’ve always been grateful for that. It’s more of the little things, that I overlooked parents that support me, the means of transportation, and materialistic things. A video was shared in my English class of a book, “Where Children Sleep” By James Mollison it showed different children throughout the country and their bedrooms. The feeling I got after the video made me become more grateful of the things I have and the lifestyle I live. Every now and then most people see something similar and become aware of the things they have and their life style, but they soon forget that feeling. They end up going to unappreciating and taking things for granted. I believe that people should never forget this feeling, people should always remember to be grateful.

Video: Silde show of the book "Where Children Sleep" by James Mollison

    
      Looking through a different perspective of things has shown me to appreciate more. To take advantage of things while I have them, even if it’s a view of my hometown I will grasp every moment I can. The biggest lesson I took from my college English class was to have an open mind to see things from a different perspective. If people could see their lives through someone else’s eyes I think people would be more giving and humble, there would be less pity and less boastfulnes. A lot people wait for a life changing event for them to realize the things they cherish most. I’m lucky that I realized this before. I count my blessings now, I try and find the positive in everything, and when things get tough I remind myself that there are others that are in a worse situation then I am. As a wise person once said “Be content with what you have and take joy in the way things are, and when you realize you have all you need the world belongs to you.”