Have you ever thought about how much there is to learn about the world? There is a great deal of knowledge out there for anybody to consume, yet most people don’t access it. Even in college, outside of completing Gen-Ed requirements, the norm remains to stick with your major discipline and learn everything you can about that field. While specialization and having an in-depth understanding of specific material is essential to the function of society, it can also be eye-opening to learn more about the various operations of the surrounding world.
In college, you have access to a breadth of topics, and if you choose to, you can learn a little bit about a niche field or something you find fascinating yet haven’t been able to devote time or resources to. Utilizing those general education requirements to expand your skillset can be a great way to test and see what you are passionate about. As a premed-biochemistry major, my expertise ranges within the field of medicine and biochemistry. However, out of pure interest and the sudden burst of willpower to learn everything about everything, I started learning Latin, learned how to code in full stack and Python, took a class on world politics to have a better understanding of the current political climate, and briefly studied severe weather events — taking a particular interest in the classification and development of hurricanes and tornados. The cool thing was that outside of college classes, I was learning everything for free. I used a coding app to learn full stack and Python and read/watched open-access texts and videos, used national weather service data, and accessed research papers without pay-walls to learn more about hurricanes and tornados. For learning Latin, I used Duolingo and also used beginner-friendly texts in the language to practice my reading ability.
It was nice to learn something where I was out of my depth as it gave me a chance to step out of my comfort zone, and also meet people I wouldn’t usually cross paths with. In addition, I also was able to use these newfound skills to accentuate my understanding of my discipline. For example, by learning more about severe weather events, I was able to apply that to creating an action plan for medical support in the wake of such disasters. In my climate change and health class, I was able to bring key insight into the problem of how severe weather can be a public health crisis. In addition, when I took a comparative literature class, many of the writings were translated from Latin, so I was able to decipher the nuances of the written language, giving me a more accurate understanding of the text.
Overall, stepping out of your field of study, and learning a new skill, or language, or just studying something for the fun of it can be a great way to broaden your horizons and explore the world a bit.
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