 Hi, I'm Royson. I'm a senior studying cognitive science with a computing specialization. For my learning narrative I want to talk about a time I learned more about how we as people see the world and how it has stuck with me since. This moment of learning happened when I was in discussion from my social psychology class. It was our first day and we had a paired exercise to complete. My TA gave us all pieces of paper with blank lines on them and gave us the following instructions. Go outside and walk around for 10 minutes with a partner, writing down the things you observe. Don't talk to each other. Just walk together and write. I went outside with my partner Alice and we walked to bomb shelter and back, writing stuff we observed. We did end up talking to each other, but it wasn't about the stuff we noticed. When we got back, our TA asked us all to share the things we had observed from the activity. We went around the room and each said one thing. One person said she noticed that someone was wearing a pink shirt. Another person noticed the species of trees she saw. Another student said he thought the air was nice. The TA then asked us to compare how we observed things with how our partner did. All of us noticed pretty interesting things. One person said she noticed how people looked while her partner focused on what they were doing. Afterwards, the TA shared a very important insight with us. She said all of you pairs went to the exact same places at the exact same times, but you all saw different things from each other. All the things we noticed, the patterns of things we observed and are aware of in our daily lives, are influenced by a variety of so many different factors. Our upbringing, our interests, how we are feeling, even what we ate for lunch that day. So while we all passed through the same physical space together, we all see and experience vastly, sometimes even completely different things for innumerable reasons that are almost always invisible to us. Although I've always rationally known this truth, this activity probably was one of the most impressionable ways for me to really take it in and remember it due to its active experiential nature. It really has stuck and I see it affecting my daily life and actions. The lessons I learned from that one simple discussion section taught me how to be more understanding, how to treat other people well and give them the benefit of the doubt and increased my awareness of myself, others and the world.