It's All About Perspective

"On Looking" by Alexandra Horowitz is about how we all see things differently, how we miss the little things that are around us because we think they're insignificant. When a teacher or our parents say "pay attention" we automatically think we have to see the person and listen closely while they talk to us, or we have to keep looking at the board while a teacher explains something. The thing is, we don't really know what "paying attention" means. We all see the world in a different way. Some people can go take a walk and just be on their cellphone, without even giving a glance to anyone or anything. Others take a walk to clear their mind and see everything around them but they don't observe, they don't look closely enough to see what is really going on. Or maybe some people, like me, just take a walk and look at the sky and think of all the good things instead of  drowning on the bad things.

It's all about perspective. Perspective is a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view. I'm sure you've heard of the endless debate of the glass, if it's half full or half empty. They say if you think of the glass as half full you're an optimist, and if you see the glass as half empty you're a pessimist. Well, some people will see it one way and others the other way. We can't all think the same way, we're all different. This is why it's all about perspective. The way you see the world and act towards it will define your life. You will live in a positive or negative way depending on how you choose to see things. They say "pay attention" and we think it's supposed to be about school or work, but maybe it's all wrong. Maybe what we should be paying attention to is the world, the little things, what goes around us everyday. We shut out the rest of the world trying to pay attention to a specific thing when we should enjoy every little thing, every detail in our lives. When something goes wrong, look around you. Look for a child laughing for some silly little thing, look for a dog running through the grass, someone giving food to the homeless, two friends talking about their dreams, people falling in love. The thing you should be shutting out is the negative things, look for hope in all those things you ignore for focusing on the bad. Live like there's no tomorrow, and laugh when you feel like crying.

Me

We all have trouble defining ourselves, or talking about who we are. It's so easy saying good or bad qualities about another person, but when it comes to ourselves, we go blank. Well, this is my assignment for today, to talk about myself. I think this will be the hardest blog entry. Maybe some people don't have that much trouble, but for me it's the hardest thing. My name is Frances Nicole Pérez. I'm 18 years old. I study at the UPR of Río Piedras and graduated from Academia San Jorge. I love to be with my family and I'm the biggest dog lover. I love to shop and watch movies and series. I hope I get to travel to many places and see different parts of the world. I think my biggest dream is to become a professional at something I'm good at and love, surrounded by family, maybe a son and many many dogs in my house.

Like everyone, I have fears. Maybe more than some people. I fear that life will disappoint me in ways I won't be able to overcome. I fear not making my parents proud. I fear waking up in 20 years regretting the way I did things, wishing I would've done everything differently. Everyone wishes for happiness, everyone wants to feel satisfied with their lives. This is what I want, I want to be satisfied. I always feel like I want more, like this is not enough for me. Maybe I look for it in the wrong places, I do things hoping to feel something different when maybe this is all I get. It's hard for me to focus on what I have and make the best of it instead of always looking for something new. This is something I wish I could change about me, this feeling of wanting more. I'm one of those people who feel like they're meant to be someplace else. I love everything I have and everyone in my life, I just feel like there's something missing.

Do we all feel this way? Like there's something missing? Maybe what's missing is realizing what a great life we were given and doing everything with love and passion. Fighting for what you really want without caring what everyone else says or thinks. Love yourself and show people that every time you fall, you get stronger. This is what life is, falling and getting back up. There will always be doubts, disappointment, and pain. You just have to make the best of every moment, and learn of every lesson life will give you. But most importantly, be happy.

Violence

In "A Use of Force" we see the theme of violence. I think we all have violence in us, some people show it and others hide it. Since the beginning of time this has been present and probably will always be. In this short story, a little girl is sick and the parents get a doctor to diagnose her. The girl didn't want to open her mouth and the doctor needed to look at her throat to see if she had diphtheria, a disease that was running in school and she could die from it. The doctor forces to open her mouth as she fought back as hard as she could. Eventually, the doctor overpowers her and confirmed she did have a sore throat. 

In some cases, using violence to help someone is the only option and could be the best thing to do. In my opinion, in the case of this short story it would be hard to say if it was right or wrong. The doctor tried to get her to open her mouth by talking to her but she refused so he used violence. He wanted to help her but felt like he didn't have any other choice. Where violence becomes a real thing in this story is when he says he liked hurting her. The doctor says he had fallen in love with her, which was inappropriate, and still would have killed her just for pleasure if he could. So maybe he did the right thing for the wrong reasons.

Violence will always exist, maybe with time there will be less or more, but it won't disappear. Everyone has violence inside of them but we all have the choice to use it or not. Acting in a violent way can make that person feel like he has control or some kind of power, we could say this is a reason why they do it. Some people just like to see others in pain or misery. They do say misery loves company, and a person who would feel pleasure hurting someone else has to be miserable. Still there are others who are kind and even though they might have some violence in them, they don't react towards it. We can't help if we feel like turning to violence in some situations, but we can choose not to do it.