Virtual vs. Actual Reality

Virtual reality is an incredible to experience the environment of people others than yourself and also to get a little queasy while doing so. Being fully immersed into the lives of migrants is a powerful experience that makes you think about how the world is happening concurrently with itself, with an almost infinite amount of activity occurring at once. Although my stomach couldn’t handle the headset, I fortunately could have an opportunity of getting a peek into the lives of others from my time in Asia. Traveling to places like Cambodia or Vietnam was really eye opening for me. I got to have a brief glimpse into the lives of locals who were living in incredibly different and difficult circumstances. My virtual reality headset was the small boat I was on allowing me to peek into the lives of those living on the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Seeing the daily lives with those living there and having personal interactions with them allowed with me to empathize better with their experience and with others who I had never met before. This is because once you can empathize with some others who you didn’t know before, it is easier to see your common humanity and accept people who you have never interacted with. Traveling that part of the world showed me how similar all of our lives are. Despite the vastly different circumstances of our lives, I could see the similarities between us. There are people who we don’t know who are just like the people that we do. So for those who’s stomach can’t handle VR but can handle the steep price of plane tickets, I highly recommend getting out into the world and experiencing as much of it as you can.