What is "reality?" What is "truth?"

I love writing; it's my passion. But I generally don't take well to sharing my writing. It's not because I'm insecure about it or because I can't take criticism or anything like that. It's purely because I do it for myself and no one else.
Other than essays for class, I don't really share my writing with anyone. I write poetry, fiction, memoirs, and everything in between. But I do it simply because I love writing and it makes me feel good, not just so I can put it out there for all public to see. That all said, I do one day wish to become an author. I'm majoring in English/creative writing in college, and after that it's my dream to travel the world and write about all of the different peoples, places, and cultures I experience-and write about them for what they truly are, not for what most people make them out to be. So to accomplish all of this, I suppose I should probably start sharing some of my writing other than vocabulary definitions and literature analyses. So I'll start with this: I was debating whether or not to apply to U.C. Riverside's honors program (this was a solid hour and a half before the application was due) and I just really didn't feel like writing another 500 word essay on my "leadership qualities." But I decided it couldn't hurt me and it wouldn't take that much time, so I started writing. The application required two essays: one on leadership, and one reflective essay with a specific prompt. The reflective essay prompt was about the nature of reality and truth, which I found to be compelling. I then began to write what turned out to be a somewhat organized tangent of my thoughts that I'm not sure actually met the prompt, but that I was proud of. I then started thinking about how much we've been talking about reality and truth when discussing Brave New World. I guess in a way, my essay can relate back to the book. It just depends on your perception of it all.

Reality and truth are two very difficult concepts to grasp, simply because life ultimately boils down to interpretation. It’s hard to view reality for what it truly is because of all of the outside factors that influence our thoughts and beliefs, such as intangibility and media. Even the most unbiased, intellectual psychologists and scientists often have skewed ideas and realities of truth because of the way they interpret the reality and truth around them. It’s not necessarily wrong, just different than the societal norm.

            When we as humans think of reality, we think of nature, buildings, jobs, schools, families, food and so on simply because this is the world we have come to know. Because we can see all these things and reach out and touch them, they are real to us. However, many people frown at the ideas of aliens, mermaids, and even an ultimate God. At first thought, it seems logical to reject these ideas as false and childish. But just because we can’t see them does not mean they’re not real, just that we haven’t discovered them yet. People once thought the idea of technology was absurd and unheard of, but here we are in the 21^st century with internet, cell phones, and technological advances that haven’t even come about yet. Our species cannot begin to fathom how immense the universe is, yet some have the audacity to say that we are the only intelligent form of life, simply because the “reality” around us is all we know.

            The idea of what is “true” is a completely separate can of worms. What one person honestly believes to be true can be seen from a totally different perspective of another person, who can truthfully deem it false. The black/blue or white/gold dress that came out recently in social media is a perfect example of this. While some looked at the dress and saw two colors, others looked at the same dress and saw two totally different colors. Neither side was wrong per se, they just interpreted the colors differently. Another fact of the matter is that we don’t see things as they are, but rather what we make them out to be. Lies and deceit are everyday factors of the corrupt world we live in, skewing what is true from what isn’t and making it hard to decipher which is which. With the way media is in this day and age, it’s a wonder that there’s any truth left in the world at all.

            Based simply on the definition of metaphysics and the quote from the Talmud, I feel it’s safe to say that the nature of reality and truth can only be determined by the one who is perceiving it. Like the Talmud says, we really do view things in a biased point of view whether we want to or not. Generally as humans we believe what we can see and feel, so trying to interpret intangible concepts like truth and reality is incredibly difficult to do.

So that's that. I don't entirely know what the whole point of putting this out there was. It could be that I found it quite ironic the way this random application essay related back to my English class. Or maybe it's because it's almost 2am on a Sunday night and I felt inspired. Maybe even a little bit of both. And I don't know if people will actually read this or not, but I guess it's good that it's at least out there and not just another Microsoft Word Doc. saved to my laptop that most likely no one will ever even get the chance to see.