I Believe in Reality by Grace Redmond

In a society where fictional movies and novels exist, where any idea or thought can be made into a tangible object, reality is starting to slip away. Even humans themselves are starting to become unreal, modifying their bodies with surgeries and cosmetics, to become someone they aren't. While occasionally this can be a good thing, for the most part society as a whole is losing its grip on reality, one of the most important aspects of human life; without reality, we could not have fantasy, dreams, or even life.

Everyone has seen something on the news about celebrities having plastic surgery performed on them to, supposedly, make them look better. When you think about it though, the only thing they accomplish by making themselves better is pushing themselves further along the line leading to a lost grip on reality. There is a reason people are born looking they way they look, and they should cherish that fact, rather than artificially changing themselves. Everyone has surely seen or at least heard of one movie or show where someone undergoes plastic surgery. In the media, most stories along these lines have tragic ends, such as something going wrong and the person in question becoming a social freak.

Aside from people altering themselves, some get lost inside fictional fantasies. All too common are those who become obsessed with a certain movie or novel, as has been seen with J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. These people have lost their grip for whatever reason there is behind it, but it's not healthy. People were made to create fantasy situations, yes, but becoming obsessed and stuck in that fantasy can lead to no good. It brings people to stop believing in the real world and wish to live in their fantasy, either created by them or someone else. The same thing can happen with dreams; the person becomes so entranced by what's happening in a dream, like them obtaining something unreachable but desired, and will start to disdain reality in favor of that pleasurable dream.

Even something as subtle as pretending to be someone you aren't to please others is a slight slip from reality. Everyone is guilty of doing this at least once; occasionally this is done subconsciously and it is never realized by the person in question. People are by nature a race that creates fantasy to explain the inexplicable, and to make themselves better, whether it's superficial or mental. And of course, there are those who lose their grip on reality completely, and are dubbed mentally unstable. Hypocritical we are, to say these individuals alone are the unstable ones, when we've all lost our grip on reality at some point. How can we shun this certain people for acts that we all perform?

All in all, there is no way to completely toss the loss of reality to a certain extent; it is in human nature to want to get away from what is real for whatever reason, and to entertain ourselves by making up stories and situations that please us. As humans we do this automatically. But, as humans, we can also limit ourselves in the belief of unreal ideas. No matter how painful, ugly, or unpleasant real life is, its still real life. People need to live it.