My Path

My Path

          Flash Fiction

It has been said that we don’t meet people by accident, they are meant to cross our paths for a reason. Although sometimes people will only enter your life for a very short amount of time to simply teach you a lesson. People often say that every person you meet has a purpose of being there because we often learn from the people that surround us.

We meet people who play different roles and serve different purposes.  The people we meet are not by chance, some are meant to awaken us and initiate change. Those who remind us of our goals and what we truly want in life. Those we help us grow, they teach us things we are unable to learn by ourselves. Those that hold space for us, aka small talk and no true connection. Then those that stick with us through it all. These people are very rare, they often share the same mission as you.

You must be strong believer that, “Everything happened for a reason” in order to stay happy. There are many things in life that shape us to who we are today. All the people we meet and experiences we have changes us even if we don’t realize it. Family, friends, relationships, and deaths all will impact who we are. It may shape your personality, or it may show you a different perspective of life.

Something in life you cannot control is the amount of people who come and go. You will often meet new people almost every day.  Although every person who walks into your life, whether they stayed in it or not, they will all have something to teach you about life. Every person you meet, you’re meant to meet. No matter how long they stay in our lives. Every person has something to teach us.

Artist Statement

This piece is about all the people and things that contribute to me as a person. My image is a photograph of me built out of emoji's. All these emoji's represent all of the people I've met and experiences I've gone through. Everything that has crossed my path has made an impact on who I am today. The image is somewhat unclear to see, the reason for this is because people will cross come in your life, teaching you things that you didn’t even notice. My Flash fiction talks about why we meet the people that we meet. Most of the time you won’t know why they were in your life in the first place.

Reflection

Many people have biases that they don’t even know they have. These biases lie unknown inside people’s personalities. They manifest themselves in many unexpected ways.  For instance, most, people would not classify themselves as racist. Although previous life experiences influence from parents, family, friends all help create biases that you may not recognize in yourself. One common cause of how we perceive others is based on common stereotypes. People are exposed to stereotypes throughout their life’s and unconsciously apply them to others based on ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic class. I have personally discovered biases that existed within me that I did not know I had.

The TED Talk “How to overcome our biases” By Verna Myers discusses, “How much better our lives would be if we would look within and be willing to change ourselves." (Myers) There are three main ideas Verna Myers suggest for this to happen. The first suggestion is to get out of denial and look for dis-confirming data that will help you believe your old stereotypes are wrong. Another way is to move toward your discomfort, expanding your social circles will also help you go against stereotypes. She suggests having relationships with people that are different from you. Verna Myers also states that, “Biases are the stories that we make up about people before we know who they actually are.” (Myers) This tells us how much stereotypes and biases are passed on through generations. The last suggestion that Verna Myers suggests is, “When we see something, we have to have the courage to say something.”(Myers) Biases never die, and they tend to continue from generation to generation because people aren’t speaking up to the people who are wrong. In another article discussing bias called "Implicit Bias- Is it really?" Kathleen Woodhouse States that, "If you have a brain, you are biased."(Woodhouse) This helps people realize that everyone has biases, and get out of denial.

I have discovered that the perceptions that I have of myself in my own mind may not accurately depict the perceptions that others have of me, or the perceptions that I give off to others. Just as one person may view a poem, having one meaning and another person reading the same poem but coming to another entirely different conclusion. People can be just like a poem where the author of the poem meant one thing but many different views of what the poem means can be seen by multiple people. What would appear as biased behavior to one person may not appear so to another person. The original intent of the person may not have been to act in a bias manner. Although their actions may be subconsciously biased. I have learned to become more self-aware of my actions and behaviors to eliminate biases. Just being aware that there are hidden biases that everyone has without knowing it, helps me understand other people’s action and my own actions a lot better.