So I made this blog at the beginning of the semester because it was an assignment for one of my classes - Report and Copy Editing. I thought the idea of blogging was cool so I made my blog page with an idea in mind that I would be able to continue blogging after the semester was over and I was no longer posting purely for class assignments.
Here I am, at the very tail end of the semester. I am looking back on my semester as a very productive period of personal growth. As I normally tend to do, I hoped to do so much more than I had time for (like maintain this blog for example). Yet, what I accomplished leaves me a lot to be proud of.
If anybody out there reads this and is either an undergraduate student, or somebody who is considering bettering their life with education (I really have no idea who my audience is) and is unsure of what path to pursue: I highly, highly encourage the humanities as a first step.
The reason why I am encouraging the humanities - and for those who aren't sure of what I am talking about, here is a link to Stanford University's website page for the humanities (http://shc.stanford.edu/what-are-the-humanities) - is because I feel that my life has made a dramatic change since I decided to switch to a humanities major away from a life science, and it can very well have the same impact on you. And don't think I'm plugging for more humanities majors, but I am saying that the content is absolutely worth your time.
To give a background, I am a fourth year student. I changed my major at the end of my third year to English Rhetoric and Writing from Microbiology with a concentration in Biomedicine. Everybody I explain this to has the same reaction: "Wow, that's a big change."
I am inclined to agree to that statement. It is a big change. However I believe that people say what they say for a different reason. I think they say it is a big change because they believe I downgraded by switching my major from Microbiology to English. To the layperson, it sounds a little bit like a downgrade. Yet, I am surprised at how many people believe that Microbiology is inherently better than English. The message I am trying to get across today is do not get caught up in what will make you the most money with the least effort. Don't get caught up in getting through college as if it is some weird transaction. The salary out of college is massively important to so many people and is the biggest reason why people think I made a silly decision switching from Microbiology to English.
"You won't make nearly as much money," is what people think. Maybe not immediately, I agree. If I would have pushed myself, despite the huge signs telling me I wouldn't be happy in the field, I would have made at least $50k yearly out of college with an ~99% graduation to employment statistic. My financial future would have been very secure. Despite the fact that I didn't have the drive to take on the effort to learn the field well and despite the fact that I wasn't excelling in my classes, I would have made a good amount of money. As long as I graduated, I would have made a comfortable amount of money. If money is all that mattered I would have stayed.
But money does not matter. Money comes and goes, forever and always. You either have enough or you don't. Those who don't, probably don't have enough money for a greater reason than their major in college. So why do people tend to send so much flack towards English majors? Great question Jon, but I am already on a tangent, and I think that answer should be saved for another day.
The message I'm trying to convey today is thus: pursue what will make you happy. Life is fleeting, life is short (yadda yadda). What is the point of doing anything if we don't even believe in it? I got into science because I wanted to help people. I wanted to be a doctor, and save lives. I served on the ski patrol, and as a life guard. I still believe in those trades, strongly. But I feel better as an English major because I feel that I will be more able to help people (and now I'm really trying to stay grounded, and avoid making broad, ambiguous arguments) by studying ideas, philosophy, and language. Language especially is so powerful, and yet people have no idea the influence language has on them. I have no idea the influence language has on me, because it is immeasurable, yet I am beginning to grasp it.
I want to pursue law and eventually politics, because I don't want to sell myself short. My original plan was to use my talents to help people, and I still want to remain true to that. Just because my first plan, medical school, did not pan out does not discourage me. Literature and language encouraged me to continue in what I believed in because they empowered me to better myself as a person. This is just my personal experience.
Too many people get caught up in learning a trade to make money. I have to agree that that is the ultimate purpose of education, but there is so much more to learning. We have to better ourselves as individuals, in a way that makes us content in being who we are. I believe in the humanities because it teaches us about the human condition, what it means to exist in this insane thing we aptly call the human race. What it did for me is make me for comfortable being a scholar instead of a scientist, and resolve me on my path to helping any person I can by any means necessary.
I believe everybody needs to take the humanities seriously because it teaches us how to be people. Literature teaches us to understand other people in their brightest and darkest times. History teaches us where we have been and where we are going. Art teaches us the beauty and darkness of the mind and soul. Language expands thoughts and encourages communication.
In summary, the humanities is the basis for all human knowledge. If you are lost or confused in your path, try turning to literature, philosophy, history, art, language. My life has been forever changed as a result - I am more confident as a person, friend, employee, and leader.
