The Power of Perception

Perception is the invisible power that builds the way we live. More than what we see, but how we know, feel, and respond to it all around us. From the most fleeting contacts to the largest life decisions, perception builds the individual lens on which each of us lives.

As we develop in adolescence, our perceptions are even more intricate. It's an age of physical, emotional, and social transformation. Teenagers begin questioning the world and themselves as they try to find purpose and identity. Teenagers' self-concept — their strength, weakness, and value — will in turn determine what type of adult they will be. It is an age where peer and others' opinions can fuel self-esteem and self-worth.

Gender is also a significant factor in determining how one sees. Childhood in society is accompanied by different expectations for boys, girls, and those who do not fit the usual gender definitions. These expectations are capable of tainting the way people see their option and place in society. A girl will be indirectly persuaded that leadership is harder to achieve, and a boy will be persuaded that vulnerability is weakness. The gender resisters will be predisposed to navigate life in a whole different frame of mind — one of strength, resistance, and even confrontation.

Having understood perception is founded upon such factors — age, gender, upbringing, environment — brings us to comprehend that reality isn't singular. Two men or women of similar or different backgrounds can go into the same space and perceive wholly different energies simply because of how different their experience in life is.

But the beauty of perception is that it can be revised. It grows as we grow wiser, dispel myths, and broaden our vision. Adolescents especially have the awesome power to remake their visions — to look beyond the constricting scripts of the world and create a world more expansive, more human, and more libertarian.

Lastly, perception is not merely an afterthought of what happens in our own small world, but an entry to the power which society holds over us. If we are able to learn to see how it affects us during the most shaping portions of our lives, we are no longer merely capable of seeing the world in a new way, but of altering it.

-Aarunya Bhatia