On perception and perspective: Tell me, what’s relevant to you?

         What’s relevant right now? Although you may not notice right away, that question ends up defining what you see and how you see it. Alexandra Horowitz states in her book, On Looking: Eleven Walks With Expert Eyes, that objects compete with each other for your attention, and “attention is an intentional, unapologetic discriminator” that “asks what is relevant right now, and gears up to notice only that”. This where perception and perspective—two sides of the same coin—unite. They decide what you pay attention to.

Image retrieved from: 
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15803166-on-looking

           Both concepts give a name to the ability we have to see and/or understand things. Perception refers more to the physical process that takes place in your brain to understand something that has been seen. Perspective, on the other hand, is better tied to what you understand a certain thing to be and why you understand it that way. Perspective, then, is more dependent than perception on an individual’s background which, in turn, determines what’s relevant to us.

             In the social sciences, the process of perception is explained in a straightforward—rather scientific—manner. First, the eye captures an object, and the brain receives the stimulus or image. Then, it picks that image apart and takes only the necessary things it needs to associate what was seen with concepts it already knows. Once the brain finds what concept the image clicks with, the process of perception is complete. All of this happens within a matter of seconds; you don’t even notice it happens. For example, you see a clear liquid inside a clear plastic bottle with a label that reads “Dasani”, and you immediately think it’s water. Your brain takes only the aspects of that image it needs (the Dasani label, the plastic bottle, and the clear liquid) and pairs them as a whole with existing concepts in your brain; in this case, water. The clear liquid could, perhaps, be rum.

            We perceive only what we want and see it based on our own perspective—the part of that process that is subject to our personal background. For example, my perception and perspective on things is defined by who I am. I, among other things, am honest and kind hearted. Therefore, I always perceive people to be this way as well. I think and see the best in people when I first meet them. However, experience has taught me that this isn’t always the case; people often lie and aren’t kind hearted. This also influences my perspective because experiences also form part of your background; experiences, as I’ve always believed, shape the person you are. Now I see the good in people, but am also aware that maybe they aren’t honest or kind hearted. (If you would lie to know more about me, I invite you to visit my post on my internal and external journey).

            Our personal background decides what is relevant to us. We see what we want to see and that is what we know. Therefore, what is relevant to you will ultimately influence your perception and perspective. Now tell me, what’s relevant to you? Because, whatever it is, it’ll define your perspective of the world and what you see.

Politics, history, culture, and language: Puerto Rican English

         Last Wednesday, February 4, 2015 the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus hosted a conference about lexicon varieties in the English language taking as a base the countries of Puerto Rico, the United States of America (USA), Malta, and Great Britain. Said conference was led by Dr. Manfred Krug of the University of Bamberg in Germany.

            One of the main points presented by Dr. Krug on the conference's subject dealt with the issue of how the culture—I would also add history and politics (especially political history)—influences the way English is spoken across the world. To exemplify this, he explained how the English spoken and written in each of the mentioned countries relates to each other. Maltese English, for example, has more similarities with British English. However, Puerto Rican English (the more pertinent case to my journey) has more similarities to American English.

Image retrieved from:
http://s895.photobucket.com/user/usmarine10984/media/h-PUERTO-RICO-US-
FLAG-960x540_zpsf8a072b8.jpg.html

            If you’re familiar with Puerto Rico’s current political situation, this may not come as a surprise. To those of you out there who aren’t, don’t fret; remember that part of our journey is to learn new things every day. Puerto Rico has been, since 1952, politically categorized as a Commonwealth of the United States of America. This term establishes that the island is a territory of the United States and emulates the “Mother Country” (as some Puerto Rican’s lie to refer to the USA) in form of government and, subsequently, basically everything else. Nevertheless, it has more political autonomy than an actual state of the nation would have. In addition, long before that, since the nation’s invasion of the island in 1898, the USA--and its cultural influences--has been present in Puerto Rico. In light of these facts, it’s easy to see why American English is so similar to Puerto Rico’s English. Furthermore, as also established  by Dr. Krug in his conference, Puerto Rico’s English is further influenced by the Spanish language due to the fact that, before becoming a US territory, the island was a Spanish colony with its official spoken language being Spanish. After the United States acquired possession of the land, the nation tried to change the language to English, but didn’t succeed. To this day, the main language spoken in Puerto Rico is Spanish. However, English can basically be considered a second official language.

            These political and historical events are the reasons behind the kind of English spoken on the island. Said events have instilled specific cultures and, consequently, languages in Puerto Rico. Then, as would happen in any social process, the influences of both cultures and languages are mixed to create a specific version or variety of the main languages. Therefore, without the political and historical events and cultural influences, varieties in a mother language—in this case English—wouldn’t take place naturally. Just like two fingerprints are never alike, the same language is never alike in different countries; even if they’re part of the nation that brought them the language in the first place.

My Big Journey

        We all have little journey's within our one big journey, our life. Me? I'm just trying to figure out what that big journey is and will be about in the end. However, we come to this earth for a purpose, and, once it's complete, we reach the end of the journey and pass on to a better life.

        I was born in Puerto Rico to a Cuban mother and Puerto Rican father. I have lived my nineteen years of existence right here on this island. I have only one living grandmother. Her husband, my grandfather, died of cancer in 2009. I had a boyfriend who I loved very much, but we both hurt each other. I'm a good student and daughter. A year ago, I was diagnosed with two conditions in my brain. In one of these, a section of my brain works more than it should and, in the other, another part of my brain works less than it should. You probably know these conditions as anxiety and depression, respectively.

January 2015: The Grand Canyon North

            I could go on and keep on giving you facts about me and my life, but more important to my identity and journey is that I've spent little time with my dad's family and all my time with my mom's. Although I was born and raised in Puerto Rico to a Puerto Rican father, I consider myself more Cuban than Puerto Rican. One of my greatest desires is to live in the United States. I love my island, but I just feel that I could love it more from a distance. I want adventure. I've visited the states (California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and New York), and I love the feel of the people: nice, but proper; amicable, but not invading. Moreover, my grandfather's death and my anxiety and depression diagnostics are two of the hardest moments I've had to face in my life. I was incredibly close to my grandfather, and when he died, I also lost a friend. Very recently, I was hurt very badly, and, in turn, I hurt someone as well so I'm guarded, and no one will ever touch my heart again.Coping with my depression and anxiety was and isn't an easy feat. Daily, I calm myself down and tell myself to be happy; “today is going to be good day”, but it usually isn't. 

            More importantly, I'm defined by my sense of ambition and perseverance. This is ultimately what has gotten me through the difficult moments. For me there's no failure. You can fail on occasions, but complete failure doesn’t exist because we can always try again. Ambition, contrary to popular belief, is not bad because it means dreaming and working for what you wish for. In this sense, I am ambitious. I'm a dreamer, and I have goals which I work hard to reach.

 My 19th birthday at Pirulos, Old San Juan, PR.
My ex-boyfriend (left) and I (right).

            Nevertheless, despite these self-evident truths about myself and my life, I'm still working on figuring out my big journey—what it’ll be and its meaning. The little journeys in my life which you, in the course of these words, have witnessed are the ones that will shape that big journey called life. Meanwhile, I work hard to be the best version of myself I can possibly be. That, with the help of the experiences and people I come across, will ultimately define my journey.

To Belong

       Belonging: that's what most of our life's journey is about. We all want to belong, but not many realize that, to fit into a group, you must first find your place (where you belong) within yourself. In other words, belonging depends on acceptance; therefore, to be able to be accepted by another group, we must discover and, subsequently, accept ourselves first. Discovering who we are is the first and most important stage of learning where to belong. Who do I want to be? What kind of person do I want to be. Once that is figured out (not without many needed hardships along the way), we belong, not only in light of ourselves, but also in light of others. Running Brave, the 1983 film based on the true story of Billy Mills a North American Indian who grew up in a reservation and after plenty of soul searching went on to be one of the greatest runners in the world, is a film that deals with the search for both social and personal belonging throughout life's journey.        

Image retrieved from:
http://www.amazon.com/Running-Brave-POSTER-
Movie-Inches/dp/B00KK6GVIO

        Throughout the film we see how the main character, Billy Mills shifts from one cultural background to the other, identifying himself with each one while trying to find in which he belongs. For example, Mills is of half-White, half-Indian origin which denotes the character's identity struggle. Billy grew up in the reservation with Indian customs, but when he became a college-bound man, his situation shifted him to the "White" (as referred to in the film) community. Accordingly, said group has different customs in which Billy (later at his dismay or ease) finds himself immersed. Furthermore, he then, having quit running, finds himself back on the reservation promoted by the disappointment he felt towards the people in his surrounding and their actions as well as his unhappiness. Nevertheless, not being able to disappoint his people and face a traumatic experience upon his return to the reservation, he enlists in the army where he starts arduously training to achieve his dream: participating in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.       

       That being the case, the moment of Billy's change back to hope and spirit is the decisive moment where he finds where he belongs personally and socially. In that precise moment when Billy regains his dream of running in the Olympics as a part of Team USA, he finds and accepts where he belongs. He realizes he isn't Indian or White. He's both; half and half (just like his origin denotes), and that's what makes him special. This is evident when he recognizes that he's running for his people. Although interpreted as the people in the reservation, by "his people" he means both Indians and White. He's running for his country (the United States of America; his people).         

      Finding who we are and where we belong is a rite of passage that does not discriminate in this journey we call life. The road may certainly be rocky sometimes, but the good thing is that nobody has the answer but each individual. Like Billy, you'll also find your way. 

Check out IMDb's (Internet Movie Database) page for Running Brave here.