Post by MelainaA, Featured image by pixabay

In the movie, Fluke, a father dies in a car crash, and wakes up as a golden retriever puppy who has flashes of memories from his human past. Once he is fully grown up, he realizes he was once a man named Thomas Johnson. In his journey he discovers what it is like to be a dog and all of the things he took for granted as a human.

Since nobody can actually just make themselves a dog, or magically get loads of money from the sky, there are ways that we can imagine being different than what we are experiencing or looking at in the mirror. Here are some descriptions from other people’s point of view, so just maybe you can understand more of what it would be like to not be you, the person you know most about.

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What it might be like to be Tall

Being tall comes with ups and downs, especially when you’re extremely tall. Although you can see over everyone’s heads in the hall and walk faster than the normal sized people, tall people have problems to deal with, just like short ones. For example, being tall makes you a super “big” target. Extremely tall people can deal with bullies, bad reactions, and even medical worries. Despite that, longer legs means less time to travel places on foot and can make running distances less of a struggle. Plus you’ve got a big advantage when playing basketball.

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What it might be like to be Short

For short people, life is just as much as a struggle. Short people have to look up at people, they fall behind easily, and to get things they often have to climb on counters, etc. They’re also a target for bullies and their parents worry about medical conditions too. Being short has pros though. In a way, short people take their youth with them longer. Looking younger is a hundred times easier when you’re smaller than your 12 year-old sister. Getting through a crowd is much easier, as well as budging. For girls, finding that “perfect tall guy” is much easier because every guy is already taller than you.

What it might be like to have Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Multiple Sclerosis affects the communication in parts of the nervous system, and there are a lot of symptoms. The symptoms include walking difficulties, numbness, vision problems, etc. Just imagine sitting in a room and suddenly getting extremely sweaty even though everyone else is completely fine, or talking to someone and they ask you to repeat yourself over and over again. Fatigue is another symptom, basically just run a few miles and then imagine what it would feel like if you felt like that even if you didn’t run those few miles. It would be totally weird.

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What it might be like to have Poor Eyesight

There are many forms of vision problems. Nearsightedness allows you to see things better when they are closer as farsightedness you see things better when they are further away. Color blindness makes it hard to distinguish colors, and it is mostly found in boys. Imagine what it would be like to wake up in the morning and not be able to read the time, or being called four-eyes all the time. Not like this happens to everyone with glasses, but it does happen. Admit it though, if you have always had good vision, you once in your life wanted it to go bad just so you could get an awesome pair of glasses or colored contacts.

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What it might be like to be Deaf

Being deaf in ways is just like being able to hear, although there are still differences. You can still do a lot of things that are considered normal. Parents need to go to classes so they can communicate with their children. Most of the time they attend school specifically for deaf children. Of course they learn sign language, or if they can still hear a bit, oralism (the system of teaching deaf people to communicate by the use of speech and lip-reading rather than sign language). If you make the assumption that being deaf would make life terrible, you’re not exactly correct. Being deaf doesn’t mean you won’t still have good friends and great experiences.

Photo Credits: jodiandbrett via Pixabay

What it might be like to be Famous

You get a lot of free stuff. You have a big house. Everybody wants to take selfies with you. You have a really expensive car and your home is in most people’s dreams. Apparently, from what we see fame is the best thing in the world. Then again, we don’t really know what it is like because we aren’t famous. You’re normal life is taken away from you. I bet you didn’t know that Justin Bieber suffers with depression and feels like his life rips him apart. Imagine being Jennifer Lawrence and never being asked out. That would be terribly lonely.

What it might be like to have an Anxiety Disorder

Anxiety is pretty common in teenagers, which can make it something that is easier for those who don’t have it to understand, because we all have experienced a form of anxiety in our lives. There are different kinds of anxiety disorders. They can interfere with normal living standards and cause sleeping problems, muscle tensions, dry mouth, and nausea. You may know how any of these symptoms feel. Just think of the last time you had to stand in front of the class and give a speech, or if that’s not scary for you, being a few seconds away from being jumped on by a lion. It can really feel like that.

We will never truly understand what it is like to be someone outside of ourselves. It is important to understand people’s differences instead of judging them, or wishing you were them. Keep in mind anyone can do research on these sort of things, so if you ever want to know more, go ahead and do some of your own research.

**Google can not be used for self-diagnosis