A little bit about perspective

If desire alone were not enough to lead me to a new degree, then all of the signs would do the trick. In addition to the divine intervention on Saturday, I had even more pieces fall into place today. Namely the director of admissions of the engineering department and I spoke today, and we decided it would be best for me to go and speak with him in person. “I am booked this week and out most of next week. The earliest I could meet with you would be next Friday. That’s the 14th.” As it happens, that will be the first Friday I’ve had off since I started my new job.

But as crazily perfect as that was, it is not what I am posting about. The application process required some very brief essay writing on my part, and I thought I would share the one I wrote about perspective because, well, why not?

As far as other crafts go, I have tomorrow off, and I will try to get started on Eric’s gift. I also got a text today from my aunt that she is sending me a craft that needs to be finished. Her exact words were “maybe you can figure it out.” So that’s great.

Without further ado:

Albert Einstein, of e=mc² fame, discovered his theory of relativity partly due to perspective. According to his theory, the flow of time changes with an object’s speed. This helps explain why an object moving at a constant speed might look faster or slower depending on how fast the observer is going. In other words, perspective changes everything, and any two people moving at different speeds will have a different perspective.

By the time I return to school, I will be 26. It could be said that time will be moving faster for me than, say, an 18-year-old, because one year is a smaller fraction of my life (1/26 compared to 1/18). This fact has made me wary of returning to a brand new field that will require, at best, 4 more years of study. It means that I would be finishing and entering said new field at 30. If nothing else, this gives me a greater sense of urgency and a strong desire to do well.

I also bring, with these 26 years, a host of life and work experiences that range from the mundane to the uplifting or heartbreaking. I have worked for a company that employed people from 50 different countries; I went through Georgia’s fire academy and finished 3^rd in my class; I entered a classroom in Arkansas as a teacher – and the minority – and won over 135 students. I have seen the absolute best in people, and I have seen the worst. I have moved across the country, 3000 miles from my home and everyone that I knew, and I lived out of my car for a month before making a life for myself in Seattle.

I am embarrassed to say that, even as someone with a writing degree and plenty of writing experience, that I found myself somewhat stumped with this question of perspective. I loathe a flat-out explanation of anything – what fun is there in simply stating a perspective? After all, writers must “show, not tell.” But how do I show a perspective that has grown and changed over two decades and through all of the joys, heartaches, highs, and lows of a typical human life? How to adequately explain what teaching in Pine Bluff has taught me about the world? Or perhaps I should focus on the struggles of the special needs community, how I have lost friends because of my request for them not to use the word “retard” as an insult because it hurts. Maybe I should point out my perspective on safety and how important it is to not take life for granted.

My perspective is one of a constantly shifting life. Life is not a static thing; it changes everyday, sometimes minutely and sometimes drastically. All of the plans in the world cannot stop change, and I have learned to simply be open to its inevitability. I have worn many hats, and I have been to a handful of places. I use this to my advantage; I like relating to people. I like talking to strangers and hearing their life stories, and I always find that we have something in common, despite our differences. I think it’s good to shift gears every now and then. I think it is necessary. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

In short, I bring the unique perspective of Samantha Grillo Safin (formerly Samantha Leigh Grillo) to GVSU – all of my ideas, dreams, fears, idiosyncrasies, experiences, and velocity. Albert Einstein would agree, and who am I to argue?