What if The Box was Perspective? by Lance

What if The Box was Perspective? by Lance - October 2018 Scholarship Essay

Thinking outside of the box means creating a standard and then exceeding it. We as cognitive beings require a “box”, or confines to live by. However, as spiritual beings, we can’t exist without the uncontrollable, or indescribable experiences such as emotions, sense or consciousness. Thinking outside of the box is accepting that there is a convention that we agree to but then exploding it by giving that convention new rules/expectations to follow.

On the Harvard Business Review, Charles Duhigg states that “40-45% of what we do everyday… (is) actually habit.” We are so accustomed to routines that almost half of our day is on put on autopilot or “in the box.” From education to religion to basic life decisions we’ve confined our thoughts into fixed choices, and rightfully so. These fixed choices build us to be disciplined citizens and provide barriers that keep us safe. Having a routine to follow sets expectations and keeps a standard; much like rules in grade school or laws in society. In order to govern the variety of unforeseeable actions, opinions, and emotions we have, we have to build structure or “a box” that sets the standard we should live by.

However, in order to understand ourselves as humans, and cognitive beings in nature, we must think outside our conventions. In order to continue governing citizens, or educating students, it takes innovative legislators and teachers who are “thinking outside of the box” to bring new perspective to the convention. Although much of Kanye West’s current news sightings have stirred much controversy, it has also brought more informed individuals from completely separate walks of life (and conventions) to a forum that was out of the box, or the normal means of communicating ideas. Normally, Republicans, Democrats and Liberals would watch their respective news channels, receive their opinions from the candidates they support and vote accordingly. Now with what West has done, it has created a tongue-in-cheek discourse that has forced our community to think outside the box to discuss the issues of prison reform, mental health and much more. This proves that although we have a common code to live by, we must constantly task ourselves to understand our existence within the convention in order to transcend the limitations of it. We have to constantly tap into the parts of ourselves that is uncontrollable by thinking outside of the box and finding new perspectives that bring new rules to the convention. It is essential to the evolution of mankind.