Reflection Essay Sample on What is Perception?

What is Perception? Is it your belief, or is it something “you” see? Perception is “your way of viewing things”. If you look at an abstract painting and see a face, but someone sees a car, that is called perception. Which is your way of becoming aware of something in your way. While we all have different perspectives you should not follow/believe what people say as it can cause emotional damage, change your perception of what is right and wrong but can also lead to greater life experiences. 

We have all had traumas that have led to us rethinking reality. It could be the loss of a parent, sibling, or even a close friend. Those events hurt, they make us regret our wrongs, and make us smile on the rights. They make you think if this is just a dream, or if this is fake. They make us rethink everything. This is an experience that had affected me at the age of 11. My father had met his demise while we were on vacation. It was a hard reality, and I wanted it all to be a dream. People talked about how good of a man he was, and how much he cared about us. Which was their perception. In reality, it was the exact opposite. Though he was a good man, he only did things for show, for us he was a man who adored money and nothing else. Take for example the letter 6. When looking at it from an angle it looks like 6, but when flipped it looked like a 9, and we can debate what it looks like because that is what we see, that is our perception. For people on the outside, he was a 6 and that’s all they saw. But when it is flipped and you come to take a look inside our life he is a 9. It is debatable whether he is a good man or not, people can debate whether he is a 6 or a 9. Just like the Image, which is about the Sidewalk artist. The picture was taken from an angle where the bottom left of the picture is debatable. For some people, it looks like a Road, while some people will say it is the painting. Just like me, I am the Artist, and the painting is the reality and my father’s death. You can be the one judging the Image and can say that it is a Sidewalk(Good Life) or you can say that it is a Painting(Harsh Life). The only people that know are the Painter(Me) and the Photographer(Family and People who know the truth). This is showing that perception is not a Fact but is instead a 6 or 9. 

It is often said that we follow people who have a great influence on society without thinking twice. This is true until you fall with everyone. The image above will have people debate what is happening, but when you follow a group of people who think highly of one opinion/side rather than the other, you are in trouble. If you follow them without choosing for yourself, you are becoming a “bandwagon*” because there are more people on one side. Take for example something that happened with an Esports organization. Some players told their Followers to invest a lot of money, I’m talking thousands into their new Cryptocurrency. It caused its price to skyrocket, and when all seemed good, it crashed. The reason being was because the Players, who held the largest investments removed it all at once, which caused the price to plummet into the low cents. People were enraged, and all the people who invested because they did not look at their own perspective and invested a lot, which caused them to all fall at once. This is why it is important to have your own perspective and not to follow others and cloud your own judgement. In the image, it is better to choose from your own perspective rather than others. 

The way you interpret and understand reality creates a base for judgement. Perception is biased, because it can favour one over another. Perception is all about curiosity and growth. It’s alright if you are wrong, and make mistakes. With those mistakes you are able to grow and learn, those life lessons teach you. Take for example, in the image the Image we are curious about what the painting is? Is the bottom left of the screen a road or a painting itself? Or it could just be that the photographer took the photo as is, and there was never a meaning behind it.These thoughts that create an answer in our head is perception. It is different for everyone. I don't really have examples of life lessons and perception, but my mother does. She would tell me that Video Games are bad, which is a perception but ultimately a global stereotype. Her perception comes from what she sees. Most parents think about how video games waste money, which they do, but also lead to good friends. Those friends you make online would most likely be more helpful than most of the ones in person. I once played a Tournament for money, and it went well. My team made $900 and it was split 3 ways. She is an Indianparent so her perception won’t change but it did ease up and her perception went from a Stereotype and she learned a lesson, “don't judge a book by its cover”

Even though we all have different perceptions of how things are, we always think we are right because we have our own perception. People often feel left out because of the way they see things. It is not your fault if you look at 6 and say it is a 9 from a different angle. It is just how you view things. If you fall and people say you lose, it does not mean that you lost. You only lose if you stay down.