• Question: Have any of you had a real life experience that has completely twisted the way you look at the world?

    Asked by anon-187883 to Warren, Shanti, Pizza Ka Yee, Paul, Nadine, Alex on 13 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Alex Reid

      Alex Reid answered on 13 Nov 2018: last edited 13 Nov 2018 3:10 pm

      Thanks for the question. Not so much a specific incident I witnessed first hand, but recent political events have really opened up my eyes that I live in a bit of a bubble. For example, I never in a million years would have thought Trump would be elected. This is because my social media bubble is generally filled with other people whose opinions I share or agree with. This is not always a good thing! It has made me far more aware of other people who don’t share my opinions and that I need to take that into account more, both personally, and politically. To be clear, it is fine when people have different opinions from me, the issue here is that I simply wasn’t exposed to them. In general a lack of awareness of things is not something I like to encourage in myself. Since 2016 I have tried to be more politically active and aware of the pressures and situations other people might face. In understanding this I hope to help myself, and other people, make better decisions.

    • Photo: Nadine Mirza

      Nadine Mirza answered on 13 Nov 2018: last edited 13 Nov 2018 3:37 pm

      I think like Alex has said- it’s definitely recent political events that have changed how I perceive the world forever. I had been quite fortunate and privileged so far in that I felt comfortable enough in the UK to never have to quite worry about my skin colour. I know that’s not true for many ethnic minorities but I’d just been exceptionally lucky. Then shortly after Trump was elected I remember being in a Poundland (I just wanted my jumbo pack of Milky Ways!!!) and these two rather scary looking men came in cheering about Trump and they said “Where are the Muslims! Let’s get rid of them! Let’s hunt them out!” They also said a lot of other awful and vile stuff that doesn’t warrant repeating here but in that moment my brown skin was basically a big flaring red light. You just can’t hide your skin colour can you. I became hyper aware of it and also aware of the fact that in that moment I was the only non-white person in that Poundland. They started coming through the rows and I just hid. I hid behind this big staff trolley full of random products and this lovely Poundland staff member let me hide there and stood in front of it. Then the manager came out- told these people to go away or they’d call the police. And just like that all was “normal” again. Except it’s never been the same every since.
      I’ve experienced lower degree incidents like this before but they were so few and far that it never made me feel much. But this was-somewhat stronger. And like we saw- it stopped becoming just the few. So yes, it did twist my way of looking at the world but it also twisted how I looked at myself. I became conscious of my colour.
      In a way this was a good thing though- people might have certain beliefs about who I am because of my skin. But this just makes me stubbornly determined to make sure I work the best I can for as many people as I can, advocating education and science, so I not only become more than my colour- but I become a positive presentation of it.
      Also, I’m still a loyal customer of Poundland.

    • Photo: Paul Matusz

      Paul Matusz answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      Hi,

      Thanks for this important question. I completely agree with Alex and Nadine that since the recent wave of conservatism – that is rolling throughout the whole world, including SO many countries across the world, from UK and USA through Poland and Germany to Brasil just last week! – the hope I have is that with such wave there always comes awakening of political counter – activity, and brings a counter wave of liberalism.
      To me personally a different event was life-changing. It was when after spending a year at Cardiff Uni during the 4th year of my 5-year-long Masters studies (we don’t do Bachelor in psychology in Polang), I decided to do a PhD in the UK. So every single day, after courses at the uni, I’d come back home, sit at my desk and work on my CV, my application documents and polish the proposal for research projects that I’d like to do as a PhD and that would fit into the expertise of different potential supervisors – and I’d do it every day, into late night. My family wasn’t extremely supportive, they thought it was an unnecessary effort to try to go study abroad, perhaps they didn’t want me to leave (again) or perhaps they didn’t know I could make it. This was my routine for 5 loong months, where I learnt so much about sacrifice and hard work, and how to write inquiry emails English to scientists and, with some help from a friend of mine back in London who already had a PhD – how to develop a scientific PhD proposal. This was the first time I really wanted something SO much and it required from me learning so many new skills in such a short period of time; I knew that unless I put into the applications absolutely everything I’ve got – and more – it will simply not happen. This extremely hard work lasted full 5 months, filled with many emails saying “I don’t accept students this year”, and rejections from admissoin office; to a point. Two labs were interested in me; and one of them offered to fund my PhD post (and maybe also a studentship), while the other one had a fully paid PhD. I chose the first one, as there my PhD supervisor was happy for me to work on the topic I proposed in my research proposal. In the end, I didn’t get a full studentship and hard to work evenings and weekends to pay for my maintenance in London (!) – and it got really hard at some point. But. That first bout of sacrifice and long hours daily had prepared me well for all those working weekends and sacrifices that were to come – of social life, being able to generally afford things – during the PhD and after. After that period of PhD applications, I truly think, I was never the same person.

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