Week 1: Navya Rao, "Fact"?

 Navya Rao

Week 1

“Fact”?

The world is weird in the sense that absolutely nothing is absolute. The universe is measured in terms of relativity. My purple can be your orange. The difference between these “facts” and opinions are that facts have been agreed upon globally for a long time relatively, while opinions vary extremely. With enough evidence and reasoning, anything can be fact. 

 But these “facts” that we digest as concrete, are what allow animals to live in harmony. Well, not really any animals other than humans, and maybe a couple species that we force to serve us as either food or just because they’re too adorable (How have dogs not united and revolted against us yet? Have they not seen what humans are doing to the Earth? Seriously!). We just worked harder to force our system, built on “facts”, on every inch of the Earth. 

Maybe one day I’ll be able to write a blog disproving all the scientific and mathematical laws, and explain why everything is a lie, using a whole whiteboard full of calculations. However, today, this is a prologue. 

Is the 3D real? Nope. But our brains are so powerful, that we have convinced ourselves that everything is a real and solid fact! Repetition and affirmation are so powerful that simply speaking words loosely dictates fate. It. All. Starts. With. Belief.

You scored a flat 50% on your last math exam. You don’t believe you can get a better score on the next? Congrats! You flunked again. You hear people talking behind your back about how annoying you are. You don’t believe you are deserving of love? Congrats, you no longer have loving people around you!  Giving a thought your attention is like loading up a rifle with bullets. Think negative thoughts–you are filling up a M4 carbine pointed at your life, but think positive thoughts–and you are loading up rainbows in your four-leaf firearm!!

Obviously, paying attention to ideas that are out of reach won’t necessarily make things better. If I keep imagining the end of a war with intention, I won’t wake up to such news. 

Instead, I can focus on my identity. Am I a person who works towards world peace? That was a trick question because I just decided that I am. 

Similarly, are you a person that is good at math? Are you a person that everyone loves? Decide that you are. Feel like you are. And soon enough, you will be. 

Creating a self identity is much more deeper than a 500 word blog can describe. But it is simpler in application. Bad things happen to me sometimes and I get stressed. My life is a constant cycle of things happening to me, but remembering that nothing is real enough to actually matter grounds me. In my opinion, this detachment has made me proud, rather than embarrassed, to be my authentic self. It would be appropriate to say that I have successfully loaded my four-leaf firearm with rainbows.