Perspective

You know that feeling when you are enjoying the fact that it is about 45-50 degrees outside and that seems to be the perfect temperature, and then it starts pouring rain? Your natural instinct is to speed up to get to where you’re going faster. So you start speeding up. And then you realize that the faster you walk, the harder the rain is hitting you, which means you are getting more wet. So you slow down and just walk again, even though you know you’re going to be walking for another 15 minutes. And rarely, you begin to actually appreciate the fact that you are getting soaked and there is nothing you can do about it. So you just begin to think.

As I walked home from the library tonight in the pouring rain (at a regular pace), I began thinking about my “perspective.”

First, I realized that my perspective on life has changed quite a bit in the last few years, which I suppose is natural as you get older. But I realized tonight how startled I am by this dramatic change in my “perspective.” The jump from high school to college changed my perspective. And my first two years at Holy Cross dramatically changed my perspective. And now that I’m abroad, my perspective has changed once again.

Here’s what has happened. I would say that I started Holy Cross fairly ignorant to a greater, more worldly perspective. (And I’m certainly not claiming that I am now all of a sudden worldly or have a perfect perspective, because I don’t). Over time, Holy Cross slowly introduced me to bits and pieces of perspective, starting with my Montserrat class with Professor Dustin. Our class was called Freedom, Meaning, and Desire. I remember learning about Plato and Socrates, and beginning to understand the whole idea that “all I really know is that I know nothing” and that knowledge was one of the keys to a meaningful life (in addition to Happiness, of course. Right Professor Dustin?).

This class was a defining point in my Holy Cross experience/in my life. It made me realize that I was interested in learning, and it pushed me to pursue other outlets of learning such as doing summer orientation, spring break immersion, the chaplain’s office retreats, and CAB. And through my experiences in all of these activities, I began to learn about the importance of connecting with others and learning about their stories and experiences. And learning and understanding a person’s story has made me ask myself: who am I? Who do I want to become? Who shall I be for others?

So as I am beginning to ponder these questions, and really feel like I’m “beginning to know” the things that “I knew nothing of,” I hop on a plane to Scotland, and find myself literally living my life from a totally different perspective. So now I’m walking home in the pouring rain, realizing that although I have learned so much in the last few years, Socrates is still right, and “all I really know is that I know nothing!”

The difference is that when I was a freshman, I thought I could somehow overcome “knowing nothing.” Now that I am abroad, I am realizing that we can all learn new perspectives every single day. There is no way we will ever be completely aware of everything. We need to embrace everyone’s perspectives, differences, and cultures instead of clinging to our own. We also can’t get frustrated with those who are unable to “embrace” everyone’s perspectives because maybe they believe that they can overcome “knowing nothing.”

I used to get so worked up about the little things. But now that I’m abroad, I have really realized that getting worked up about little things is a complete waste of valuable time to be learning and growing in knowledge. And knowledge stems from getting to know the people you are surrounded by, whether it is the middle aged Scottish couple you chatted with while you were on a walk by yourself, or the ladies in the cafe you frequent for lunch who sometimes sneak you an extra piece of chocolate cake because they know you’re a regular.

When I started writing this particular blog post, I was really frustrated with my “perspective.”  I felt like had lost it. I needed to reflect and now I’m “good.” I feel like I once again “understand” my perspective. I guess I have Professor Dustin to blame/thank. So shout out to Professor Dustin. If anyone has the opportunity to take a philosophy class with him, I highly recommend it. There are so many people at Holy Cross who I want to thank for helping me grow, so one of these days I’ll blog about you too.

Talk to you soon,

Jackie

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 25th, 2014 at 12:31 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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