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Reflection #1 The familiar

I have always found it only natural that as we age or as we become more accustomed to a certain environment, the wonder initially felt diminishes or even disappears altogether. The same can be said to the “world” which I know inhabit. I use “world” here to only to refer to the places which I mostly travel to such as school and my home as well as the route to and from. I say this because I am aware that the world which I inhabit is much bigger than the one I am familiar with. In fact, I am reminded of this every time I travel not only to other countries but even within my own country. Only through traveling did I realize how mundane I have found the world I currently inhabit to be as the sense of familiarity has replaced any sense of wonder and discovery that was initially present. I say this because I feel that only through immersing oneself in an unknown environment are we able to regain this sense of wonder as we are forced to explore and accustom ourselves to it asking questions that are no longer usually asked. I think back to the times I have been able to travel with my family and always realize how I have become less enthusiastic about my surroundings by the end of the trip.

 As a person who has spent nearly his entire life in the province, moving to Manila for university has initially recreated the sense of wonder and discover that I felt during my family’s travels but most like most things however, I have also grown accustomed to it along with time losing the novelty of living in an entirely new place within the span of a few weeks. Despite this however, I realized though during the course of my Philosophy class that asking different questions and thinking about the world in a different light provides also provides another way of rekindling the wonder that was once lost. Indeed, I initially heavily sighed at the so-called stupid questions asked during class before realizing that it was these types of questions that are capable of bringing back the sense of mystery and discovery that I felt has long disappeared from day-to-day life.  Even this however I am still often having trouble with as like in Plato’s Myth of the Cave, I feel as though I am still blinded by the light and as a result, still having difficulty seeing the world as it could actually be. Despite this, I feel that this important though in the fact that this helps once again to stimulate our imagination which further helps us to think differently. More importantly however, I think that this is important as it allows us to find a renewed purpose and enthusiasm with our current world as this not only increases our motivation to discover new aspects of environment but of ourselves as well.

Julio Simeon

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