It’s not enough to “know” that something else exists
Outside your own consciousness.
Sometimes to understand and appreciate reality outside yourself
You have to expand your perspective of reality.
Zoom out.
Step outside the comfort of your community.
Cross boundaries and find yourself in shifted power dynamics.
Explore other cultures and speak with other people in their native languages.
At 20, I moved
To a place where right is left and left is right.
I pushed myself to blend into this new world,
To learn the new rules and sounds and shorthands.
I found myself adopting new points of view,
Building bridges between this new perspective and what I thought I knew.
Now, looking back is like going back to your elementary school.
It used to be the biggest place you’d ever been,
But now from this wider perspective, it’s
So small. So much smaller than you remember.
Moving to, and living in, a country other than your own
(whatever that means, your country),
Adds new dimensions to your life, expands your view of the world.
You’re able to see more
Of the picture and understand better, the context.
Life is subjective.
There is no right or wrong way to live it,
There is only our perspective an
Our actions.
I moved to a place where right is left and left is right.
It doesn’t matter how obvious something may seem,
It’s all a matter of how ingrained it is in your own culture.
There is no right way to live, there is no such thing as common knowledge.
How else can I explain,
That I’ve reached the other side of the sky,
And that from this new perspective,
It’s not blue at all.