This relates to me somewhat strongly because it has been a
personal goal in my life to reach a point where I could lead my life in a sort
of blissful awareness of what others think of me. I say ‘blissful awareness’
because it is usually said that with ignorance comes bliss, but I think it
would be a much more rewarding conclusion to be able to see bliss while being
aware of everything around you. I don’t particularly like the idea of ignoring
things to be at peace with them, so I have been trying to accept the truth in
people’s judgments in order to be at peace with them. In past times of my life
I would often find myself afraid to be alone in public places, because when you
are without a group of familiar friends you are forced to decide to be
yourself. The first difficulty faced here was finding what “myself” was, so I
could accurately portray it for others. My conclusion here was that the “real
me” was not anything that could be represented accurately, at least with
physical limitations such as speech and actions. This made me able to accept
the fact that I would never actually appear as I was inside. The second thing
that I decided was that nobody ever actually scrutinizes you as much as you
scrutinize yourself.
Realizing this allowed me to lead myself much more freely in
open spaces. Knowing that people trust you to be yourself regardless of how you
think about yourself is very reassuring when it comes to presenting yourself.
So my response to the picture would be this: the reality is that the fear of judgment
is an irrational one, and what makes people judge you is when they see you
afraid of being judged, and not being comfortable with yourself. The best thing
to do is to act as if nobody is judging you all the time, even if you are
convinced otherwise.
Very well written, I really enjoyed it. I'm sure it not only speaks to me, but many others in the class.
ReplyDeleteAs I read this piece, i could really appreciate that it was more of a self-reflective piece instead of saying how people in general would be like if no one would judge them. Also, through the example given, I was able to clearly understand how the author feels when she is alone and how her true personality comes out.
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