Throughout our lives, we constantly face glimpses of "reality," slight instances that could potentially take their toll if we let our guard down and these events shape both our personal and collective views on the real world that we live in. Even though the world struggles endlessly, people still find ways to be happy and value the importance of the good moments in life. Some might say that people do this to forget about all the problems. I believe that people do this because even though the world is nowhere close to being a suitable reality, something that can't possibly be changed by the efforts of individuals, we can still have control over our own realities.

Experiencing the reality that you create all starts with your perception, which is constantly evolving as you become more exposed to the world, whether it be through traumatic events, pleasant events, different kinds of people or just news about the world itself. These are just a few factors that shape our personal views of reality. By choosing what you perceive, you can make the kind of reality that you want yourself to live in.

Now let's talk about perception itself. What is perception? Is it a simple opinion that each of us live by that we call our own? Some might say perception is a reaction to certain events. Personally, I think perception is a quality in all of us that is linked to who we are, which translates into maturity, or rather "growing up," as it gets stronger. However, no perceptions are exactly the same, as nobody grows up exactly the same. Perception has to do with focus.

We have the ability to focus on the things that we want to see, learn and pursue. We can equally choose to lack focus on the things that we don't want to see and learn. For example, think about your nose. It's in our line of sight at all times, and yet, we don't even notice it on our own because we've learned not to focus on it. Focus is a tool that can be used to decipher all kinds of information that we want and don't want to absorb, for the better of our perceptions of reality.

Some people really like fantasy and imagination, so they view their lives through this perspective, and there's nothing wrong with that. There are also people that make the state of the world itself the only thing they learn about, and there's nothing wrong with that either. Some might say there's a balance between the real world and your own reality that one should uphold. Then again, that's just one way to view things.

Perception also has a lot to do with what we have already learned and experienced, and changes as we learn new things, sometimes even drastically. Sometimes, we might face an event that catches us by surprise, a traumatizing incident for example. In times like those, it's important to remember that your focus on reality and who you are as a person get disrupted, and for some people, these things shatter forever. It's common knowledge that you can learn from hardships, but what they don't tell you is that you have to take the beneficial lessons from them and leave out the emotional factors that could seriously affect you and make you lose sight of your goals in life, and who you are. Perceptions are important, but can be delicate, which is why it's important to stay strong and focused on what you really want in life.

On a slightly different note, perception can be spread amongst people on an individual scale, and this is why it's important to choose who you surround yourself with. Something interesting that I learned the other day is that people start to reflect and gain some of the perceptions of those closest to them. This is how exposure affects perception, thus affecting interests, desires, priorities and reality. At any rate, timing is another variable in this unsolvable equation. You never know when you or someone else will be in distress with reality and all it takes is for someone to talk to for focus to be regained. That being said, everybody has different interests and perspectives. Reality can be viewed from many angles, but nobody should choose to change your reality other than you. Focus more on the things you enjoy, surround yourself with the things that truly give you the perception that you want, people included.

The real world may suck, but life has never stopped being beautiful. We all face hard times, but you shouldn't let these times consume you. If you have the opportunity to enjoy life, why not do it? You just have to refocus on the good things you got used to, or focus on the things you have yet to discover. And don't forget the bad, just develop thick skin to get through it, and keep moving forward while staying focused. After all, reality is what you make of it.