A Love of Words #3

It's been far too long since I did one of these posts! And I've recently received some great inspiration for one of these posts, so let's get right down to it!

Let's start off by labeling the exact word I want to look at today:

per·cep·tion

noun

1. the act or faculty of perceiving, or apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition;understanding.

2. immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities;insight; intuition; discernment: an artist of rare perception.

3. the result or product of perceiving, as distinguished from the act of perceiving; percept.

4. Psychology . a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present.

5. Law. the taking into possession of rents, crops, profits, etc.

If you're curious as to why this is my word choice, the idea came from a wall that's in the hall near the lecture hall where I have my British Romanticism class (bleh) every Tuesday and Thursday. There's a bunch of art scattered all around the school, where the art students get to express themselves and it's immortalized on the walls of the school for years to come. For whatever reason, the fact that somebody decided to use the wall assigned to them to paint, they chose to capture the definition of this world. I wonder if the student that painted this was a double English and Art major, or if they just liked words a lot like I do, or if it was just this one word in particular. These are the questions that haunt me. . .

With regards to this word, I recently had a text conversation with my boyfriend that got me to thinking about the specific definition of this word. He was planning on coming over to visit when he was done working on his wine for his class at the college, and this is the conversation that we had:

J: This is taking WAY longer than it was supposed to

Me: Still doing lab tests?

J: Ya

J: The machine isn't very fast

J: Me catching the 4:05 bus might be a tad optimistic

Here is where my mind started reeling for a minute: What stuck out to me in this conversation is that he used the word optimistic in the same context that another person might use the word unrealistic. Once I realized this, I was super confused, but then it hit me; This was his own personal perception! I would never use the word optimistic in that context, but at the same time for him it still worked. And that's where all of this is coming from!

All of us have a different way of perceiving words, perceiving the world, and perceiving ourselves. The more I think about it, the more drastic perceptions will differ from person to person. And it goes beyond the simple ideas of the glass being half full or half empty, it's a lot more than that.

Perception of Words: There is a reason that I am careful when I'm texting people: It is so easy for somebody to misread your intentions and to get upset. While I feel that I can express myself better through writing, I'm still aware that when I'm not standing in front of somebody and talking to them, the meaning behind my words can be misinterpreted. 

Perception of the World: If you want evidence that the world is perceived differently by each individual person, look around you! Books, paintings, sculptures, music, all created by people trying to get their individual perspectives out there for the people to see, and to appreciate, all of them sharing that piece of themselves with the world and hoping to be received positively in one way or another.

Perception of Ourselves: We can look in the mirror and see one thing, but even if we feel that we know ourselves better than anyone, we will ultimately be looked at in an entirely different light. This is something I've especially noticed since dating somebody that I know for a fact actually cares about me. When he tells me that I'm "great", "smart", "beautiful", what have you I don't always believe him, but I know that in his mind, he is telling 100% of the truth. And to be honest, when I hear those things from him, I slowly start to see myself in the same way, which has been amazing :)

And there's my little ramble regarding my word of the moment, perception! Please let me know what you think about this post, or the other Love of Words posts I've done in the past.