Download What is Shift? - Learning Portfolio

Chyelle Milgrom (N00608503)
Assignment 1: What is Shift?
What is shift and what does it mean to me? Well, though the question is simple and direct, my
understanding of the word shift vague. By definition “shift” is a slight change in position, direction, or
tendency. Personally I associate the word shift with several different things varying from a car that has a
stick shift, the computer shift key, an amount of time working a shift, and a shift in perspective. As I
write this I realize that the word shift, which to reiterate means a small change, has been integrated into
many momentous situations of significant consequence. I find this peculiar and compelling. How can
something that means essentially a ‘minor change,’ in reality have such an impact on a real life scenario?
A political leader having a shift in perspective can change the world as we know it, just as drastically and
easily a shift in gear can send a car backwards instead of forwards.
The way we humans live our lives is so limited. There are more than 7.4 billion people roaming
the planet and yet we can only know and live from our own single perspective. With everyday our
perspective shifts a little by learning and experiencing new things. Though most of these shifts are
unconscious these slight movements have the potential to enlighten and expand us or discourage and
contract us. To reiterate, we are individually restricted to the knowledge we gain first hand and the
knowledge we gain second hand from other’s experiences. Consider therefore, the following
proposition; “what if we could do more than shift our individual perspectives?” Imagine what it would
be like if we could go beyond our own reality and assimilate another person’s perspective, experiences,
and knowledge. What if I could adopt another person’s shift? I could learn and acknowledge so much, I
would be able to fully recognize the existence and reality of another person. For example, if a billionaire
got an authentic taste of what it is like to be a Dalit in the slums of Calcutta. The expansion of awareness
could allow for a man to experience what it is like to be a woman and vice versa. Perhaps a scientist
entangled in the Gordian knot of a problem they are trying to solve miraculously finds the solution
through the simplicity of a child’s perspective.
Acknowledging that adopting another’s perspective might just do more than just shift an
individual's perspective, it might just change the world. At Parsons, as someone who doesn’t have the
slightest idea of what I want to do with my life, I hope to be able to shift my perspective and grow to
become someone with the power and wisdom to do something extraordinary.