Experience (or lack of it) and Perception

I’m learning not to underestimate the strength of personal experience. New experiences and the insight they bring are the reason some days I’m almost completely convinced I know nothing at all. It is a singularly powerful motivating factor in the way we perceive, behave, and react to our surroundings. The same event can happen to a multitude of people at the same time and yet every observer’s reaction to it differs depending on each one’s internal makeup up till that point of time: a direct result of years upon years of ingrained experience.

The simplest experiment to test out this fact (I would say ‘theory’ but it’s so straightforward that I’m sure millions have thought of it way before your truly) is to try and re-watch movies after an extended period of time, a few years being ideal. Yes, it’s that simple. I’ve tried it and a previously harmless movie is set to give me nightmares tonight.

This personal experience thing is kind of funny actually. On the one hand it’s a tool that forces us to ‘grow up’, whatever that might be. We also tend to regard ‘experienced’ individuals with a respect afforded to the wise. However I think experience should also be digested with a certain sense of wariness because it’s a sure and easy path to cynicism. And while there’s nothing wrong with cynicism (only the very naïve are devoid of it), a person who puts too much store in past experience, using it to shoot down or dismiss new possibilities is in danger of ending up bitter and angry at a world that she thinks has let her down and is determined to continue to do so. Often times bad experiences especially, shrivels our courage. Making us fearful of taking risks, always expecting the same outcome.

I’ve never really needed experience before except for the purpose of cultivating empathy. Instead, what I lack in experience I more than make up for with an over active imagination as some unfortunately have been made painfully aware of. And yes, this imagination or in most cases the ‘looking ahead and imagining the worst’ is a fear just as paralyzing as experience can be.