When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning It Was Friday

It was once thought that one's reality and experience were out of the control, it is now known that we are in control of our reality and experiences more than we may even realize. One's actions can change their reality and their experiences and one can shape their reality in many different ways sometimes without even realizing. This idea of one creating their reality and experiences is seen and demonstrated in Oliver Sack’s The Mind's Eye: What the Blind See through the description of how blind people he meet still “see” and live in a visual world even though the are totally blind and how their choices affected their visual world. It is also shown in Martha Stout’s When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday through the stories of her patients
In Stout’s work she describe how one of her patients Julia’s entire reality has been greatly affected by her brain’s actions without her even realizing. Julia was abused by her parents every day as a child and into early adulthood. Due to this abuse Julia suffers from routine and lengthy dissociations, which casue her to not be able to remember anything that goes on during the time she is dissociated. Due to the constant abuse growing up Julia remember very little from her childhood as seen in this quote “The only thing she seemed to remember vividly from childhood was that when she was about twelve, she had a little terrier dog named Grin, and that her mother had Grin put to sleep when he needed an expensive stomach operation.” (Stout 425). Through this quote Stout shows how little Julia is able to remember from her her childhood. Due to her not being able to remember her childhood she essentially has no past or history to help shape her, this leads to some very serious problems later in her life. Julia sought out Stout’s help after multiple attempts to kill herself. Stout asked Julia “All this time that you’ve been so unhappy, all the times you’ve tried to end your life, what did you think was causing all that misery?” I thought I was crazy,” she answered.” (Stout 429). Julia’s reality was defined by pain and suffering which she could not understand, which caused
In Bell’s work she mentions one of her patients Alicia. Alicia helped to create her reality through her actions. Alicia came from an area where many girls “are sexually active early, but don’t use birth control and so sometimes become parents as teenagers.” (Bell 37). Alicia was a good girl rebel as Bell describes it and didn't have sex until after college and focused on school so that she could be successful and not become pregent as a teenage like many did from her childhood. Bell says “Alicia willed and worked her way out of her working-class background through academic accomplishment and abstinence.” (Bell 39). Alicia was the creator of her reality, she choose to refrain from sex and focus on school and was able to lift herself out of her out of her background of poverty. Her actions shaped her reality, if she choose to follow the norm of her background her life could have turned out very differently. Her actions affected her reality and she made sure to choose to act in a certain way to create the reality she dreamed of. One can greatly affect their reality by the actions they take. Another example of someone changing their reality through their actions is demonstrated in Sack’s work. Torey who went blind due to an accident at work focused on changing his reality as soon as he went blind. Torey was told by many to start to learn how to live blind but Torey says “”I immediately resolved to