When Perspective Meets Reality: Lessons from a Trip to Mexico

Recently, I made a trip to Mexico. It wasn’t a research mission or a data-gathering exercise — just a visit to one city. But it left me with a lesson that surprised me more than I expected: reality can be wildly different from the image in your head. Like many, my perception was built from bits of media, hearsay, and passing online commentary. I had unconsciously stitched together an incomplete,…