The Budge Wilson Metaphor Everyone has a different vision of life. A person's perception can have a significant impact on how they see the rest of the world. This perception can be both positive and negative. Perception often plays an important role in determining how you are seen by yourself and others. People are often judged by their appearance and actions. However, it is things like their personality and character that truly define them as individuals. In "The Metaphor" by Budge Wilson, Miss Hancock is faced with the fact that other individuals often neglect her. Even though others may not be aware of what they are doing, their actions can have a great impact on another individual throughout their life. How one is perceived can both positively and negatively influence how others view them as an individual, which can greatly affect their entire life. The story "The Metaphor" is based on this perception. Charlotte looks up to and admires her seventh grade teacher, Miss Hancock. Miss Hancock is a very kind and caring person "I could tell she felt concerned and kind, not nosy," (p. 69) but unfortunately she is often overlooked because of the way she dresses "Her head was covered with a profusion of small busy, bright, aggressive, golden curls." (Pg.66) However, as Charlotte and the rest of her classmates discover, she is actually quite a sophisticated person "Miss Hancock was equally at home in her two fields, creative writing and literature. She was the first time I was moved, sincerely moved, by poems, plays, stories." (Page 66) The more the students improved, the happier Miss Hancock became. "But we were very happy with ourselves. And she with us." (Page 67) She took great pride in her work and truly enjoyed teaching her students. The more the children got to know Miss Hancock, the more they began to appreciate her as an individual, and the happier Miss Hancock became. When Miss Hancock came to teach high school, she was full of eccentricity and vivacity. This enthusiasm quickly turned to disappointment as the students quickly belittled Miss Hancock. The student's first impression of Miss Hancock was that she was a joke and they didn't take her very seriously. This quickly dampened Miss Hancock's spirits: "At that point, stripped of 15 years of overconfidence, she offered her material timidly, hesitantly, certain of rejection, of humiliation" (Pg.