I was a very late bloomer when it came to reading. My parents worried if I would have a lifetime of hardship, struggling through English classes, not enjoying novels and hating school. But when I finally came around to it in second grade, my jump on the bandwagon for reading was an enthusiastic one.
Since I jumped into the literature world in second grade, I have been a humanities person —when other people want to go play soccer outside, you can find me reading. At the beach? I’ll be on a towel with a novel. My room is cluttered with piles upon piles of books, and I have an entire stack of journals filled with notes and stories. Now that I’m heading off to college, I am absolutely positive that no matter what I end up majoring in, it will be in the humanities field. But as I prepare to attend a liberal arts college, I can’t help but find myself really drawn to the idea behind a true liberal arts education.
In high school, most of us hate a required course. Some of us want to drop science the minute we can, while others want to never write another essay in our lives. Of course, the requirements in college aren’t exactly the same, but who doesn’t cringe when they hear about a language requirement, or a requirement in critical thinking? It’s not so much the idea of taking a class in that subject, as much as it is the requirement to take a class in that subject. And although I was among those of us on the tour who sighed when class requirements were mentioned, I’ve now come to see the light a little bit.
I think the best way to enjoy a broad liberal arts education is to consider subjects outside of your academic comfort zone that still apply to your life. For example, I have a rather rare eye condition, and while I’m not a science person, I find myself wanting to know more and more about biology and the human body so that I can understand my own situation more deeply. When I get to college, I’d like to take an optometry class. It’s true that I may not do as well in this class as I would in a humanities class, and it will not come as easily to me as English does, but I think I’ll still find it fascinating because it directly relates to my life.
Instead of shying away from your requirements and taking the “English-major’s science class” route, try to find classes that you would enjoy and would be useful to your life as a whole. Go out on a limb and take an academic leap—you may surprise yourself.Â