The Open Letter Series is a collection of open letters written to other people, ideas or activities that have taken place over the course of the last few days of uploading in both the public realm and in my personal life. What exactly is an open letter? An open letter is a letter which is often critical in nature that is addressed to a particular person or group of people but intended for publication or to be read by a large group of people. In this case, that is you, the reader.

Each open letter will discuss a different topic, in varying degrees of depth. From politics to personal issues, the Open Letter series aims to provide clarity on issues, create ideas or inspiration, or, in my case, to become a place of stress and thought relief. Nothing is safe from receiving an open letter, not shows or book characters, a class lesson or a provoking idea.

So here we are, back at it again with The Open Letter Series

An open letter to perspective,

Dear perspective,

I’ve been watching this Netflix show called 13 reasons why over the last few week, and though it’s only thirteen episodes long, it’s been taking me longer than normal to watch this show, for reasons that don’t make a lot of sense to me, but that’s not the purpose of this open letter (the open letter on the fear of things inevitably ending is currently in writing, to be posted… maybe).

In the show (originally, the book) thirteen reasons why, there’s a girl named Hannah Baker who kills herself in year 11, and the main character of the book, Clay, receives a shoe box full of tapes, illustrating in detail the reasons why she killed herself (and get this, there’s 13 of them, each reason is a person who the tapes get sent to. Wow).

Often, in the show, Hannah is accused of lying or making up some part of her story or relationship to someone (her reasons) listening to the tapes, and Clay often lashes out on those people who accuse her of lying (until, of course, he listens to his own tape, and realises that Hannah often overexaggerated what happened between them, in a nostalgic, romanticized type of way).

Clay then realised that he was acting out of anger on a one-sided story that he was listening to. He never once questioned the validity of what Hannah was saying in her tapes (which was sprinkled with falsehoods but was mostly rooted in truth) in a kind of respect-for-the-dead-girl-who-I-greatly-loved way.

The story, like all stories, is about perspective. How one behaves, expresses oneself and treats the world is heavily, almost entirely rooted in how they perceive life (the world, other people, themselves).

Actions motivated by anger, fear, sadness, happiness, love, they’re all perspective. How other people perceive us plays a roll in how we perceive them. If they hate us, we hate them too (often vice versa, spare some occasions).

We let our perspective of the world control us.

As much as we’ve been taught that we shouldn’t let our emotions get in the way and that nothing should control us, what we often forget is that our perception of reality is essentially who we are. We are taught to be ourselves, so if how we perceive the world is who we are…

I’ve realised that it’s important to think about our actions in relation to how they will be interpreted by other people. Use your knowledge of how you understand people and how you understand yourself as a source of logic and understanding, knowing that everyone is trying to figure out the world around them through their own perspective, making it important that you not only do the same, but help them along, as best you can.

Or at least, that’s how I see it.

Best wishes,

Johanna