As I began to process the reading more through annotation, it became more and more apparent to me that I have a lot more in common with the author than I ever could have imagined. I never thought this kind of thought was so prevalent in other people’s minds but maybe that’s egocentric of me, like they mentioned.
I have thought in the way described by the text for a while now and I think it has continued to come easily to me as I have continued to grow up and mature as a person. I never knew this way of thinking could be described with such detail or could be described at all. I genuinely didn’t expect to have such a connection with this first piece of reading assigned by the class. It is almost as if there should be a name for this way of life, which I soon realized comes down to a few basic terms: Perspective, Empathy and Bias.
I let life get me down so many times, constantly wondering, “why me?” or just accepting I wasn’t good enough for certain things because of social constructs and that was that. As the text explains, it’s actually quite selfish to do this because the honest truth is that life isn’t revolving around you, and when you start to understand that, you start to understand that you are no different from anyone else and you start to realize that those things you thought were holding you back don’t actually exist at all. Just because you come from a certain background, look a certain way, act a certain way, or believe in certain things doesn’t say anything about your worth as a human being. What it all comes down to is our flesh and bones. It is puzzling, then, to think that in this world there exists people who think these things do, in fact, say something about one’s worth, when the truth is we all biologically started out the same exact way
Getting down to the basics of it, having perspective, practicing empathy and being unbiased has gotten me further than applying any factual knowledge I’ve learned in school. Instead of judging someone for who they are I wonder what made them that way, instead of wallowing in a C- I wonder who made up this system anyway, and who’s to say doing my own personal best is worth any more or any less than someone else’s. If someone doesn’t like me back I know it’s not really something they can help, not everyone is everyone’s cup of tea, instead of comparing myself to the socially constructed idea of beauty, I search for beauty in the eye of the beholder, and instead of freaking out I stop for a moment and ask myself, “Is this thing you are about to spend time and energy freaking out over even something within your control?”
Sometimes the mind drifts off towards unfamiliar and far off places. At times I’ll find myself lying awake at night, disturbed by the fact that this and everything and anything that anyone ever knew or saw or experienced, everything always and forever and right now and this very word and thought is temporary, eventually coming to an end; I don’t know when. People are scared of the things that don’t exist like ghosts or monsters and so am I, but not those things specifically. One day I will die, and that really scares me, but what scares me a whole lot more would be if I allowed those things that don’t exist, the constructs, judgement and bias; If I allowed those things to make the short amount of time I have left here any less meaningful than it could be, that would scare me far more.
Alice Unkrich Composing Self 
Overall it is a very strong response. I particularly like that you use personal experience and make a strong emphasize on what can cause people to feel they don’t belong. The repetition you use with “certain” really enforces that you don’t believe there is a certain criteria for those topics.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A change of perspective in life makes all the difference. Many people compare themselves to others and constantly worry about the way they are perceived. They forget that the only person who sees you 24/7 is yourself. We tend to put our best selves out there for the world but forget that others only see that side of us. If you think about other people around you, most of the time it’s relatively positive things-she’s such a good artist or has a great sense of humor. We all have people we know that we “idolize” and would like to be like, but rarely do we wonder about all the people who idolize our lives as they see it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am very struck by your comment that you “never knew this way of thinking could be described with such detail or could be described at all.”
What allows Wallace to describe these abstract thoughts (similar to the ones bouncing around in your own mind) are the concrete examples he provides that allow us to see the actual demonstration of these ideas playing out in common, real-life situations. That’s how we get it; that’s how we are able to relate.
You make some great points about the unfortunate power of “social constructs” as constraints upon us through the eyes of others. We construct prejudice, bias and entitlement through our values and beliefs.
I think it’s a great question to ask ourselves if we are worrying about something within our control or outside of it. That’s a pretty good starting point for deciding what tack to take in any given situation.
You mention too that people are mostly scared of things they cannot “see,” which is an interesting alignment with the points that David Foster Wallace stresses in his speech. What do you notice? What do you ignore? Are we afraid of what we ignore? Why?
And you final point is brilliant: the greatest mistake we can make is to let social constructs define us and make decisions for us.
LikeLiked by 1 person