I thought everyone would be familiar with this figure: if I'd studied a thing in school I assumed it was general knowledge. I hadn't yet discovered that I lived in a sort of transparent balloon, drifting over the world without making much contact with it, and that the people I knew appeared to me at a different angle from the one at which they appeared to themselves; and that the reverse was also true. I was smaller to others, up there in my balloon, than I was to myself. I was also blurrier.
The narrator reflects on the misconception that knowledge gained in school is universally shared. They realize that their own experiences have created a bubble, isolating them from the broader context of others' perspectives. This disconnect highlights a sense of isolation and misunderstanding, as they perceive people differently than how those individuals see themselves.
This metaphorical "transparent balloon" symbolizes the narrator's limited engagement with the world, suggesting that personal viewpoints can distort the reality of social interactions. It emphasizes how one's self-perception may differ significantly from how others perceive them, leading to feelings of disconnection and uncertainty.
