Distance can be deceiving. The rays of sunlight that creep through our curtains and wake us up every morning looks like a faint trail, almost tangible. As if you could grasp the thread, and it would take you up and above, luring you to the depths of the Sun’s core. In reality, the light that touches every crevice of Earth’s surface is merely an illusion. An illusion for a tiny fraction of the Sun’s power at 93 million miles away. But what if I told you that the Sun was right next to you?

At the back of every person’s mind is a burning desire to reach the Sun, to leave the ground of tangibility called Earth, to reach their goals. These urges are buried in the back for a reason. Self-doubt. The human race carries the burden of doubt in many aspects of life, whether in the future, the present, or the past. Oftentimes, it’s because our expectations for ourselves are too low; the space we set for ourselves is too shallow. In doing so, we allow little room for any of that fiction to become real. So, what are the bounds that make it said to be impossible to reach the Sun, that make reality really real? 

Perspective. The boundaries of reality and fantasy are not engraved into stone, but rather into the judgment of one’s mind. Perspective can alter the basis of truth and illusion by seeing what’s not there and by finding a different solution. The boundary of a limited perspective keeps us from a “world where you can order up a state of mind.”

Truth is not always in black and white; it can be displayed in a spectrum of colors, shades, opacity, and saturation. There is no singular answer to the universe. So, who says we haven’t already made contact with the Sun? We touch the Sun everyday, when we step outside and absorb the crepuscular rays, the ultraviolet light. 

This methodology of perspective can be applied to many topics and controversies. One such topic is brought up in Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, where Siddhartha explores the depths of reality by living multiple lives. He conditioned himself to search for another possible solution, another outlook in order to find happiness. Essentially, he changed his perspective to view every moment as a perpetual array of choices. 

When humans look for a different response, they also travel through a journey and experience the realms of the universe. Instead of accepting a given answer as true, characters like Siddhartha “could not accept any teachings, not if he sincerely wished to find something” (Hesse 90). By drawing a conclusion from his experiences, he absorbed the knowledge of surroundings and dug deeper into finding the meaning of Nirvana and life. 

What makes fiction different from reality? Fiction and nonfiction are often intertwined, similarly to how “closely related passion is to death” (Hesse 65). Most commonly, however, nonfiction is characterized as the current you. The person you are now, in terms of who, what, where, when, why, and how. Fiction is the person you want to be. One’s goals, dreams, and deepest desires. These wishes can become reality, with a little change in perspective. 

“There’s always another story. There’s more than meets the eye” – W.H. Auden

To change your standpoint should mean to expose yourself deeper than surface level. However, that doesn’t mean that reality always has to be positive; fantasy does not always have happy endings, just endings that make sense. From certain viewpoints, a goal accomplished may be something to celebrate or more hidden suffering. 

The lines between truth and imagination are blurred, but from certain angles, it might just be clear enough to show that reality lies farther into imagination than one might imagine. There is no concrete border between the two, so it should be used to one’s advantage. Distance can be deceiving, so expand the margin to fit the whole picture within the frame.