On my first day of acting school, someone said to me,

“You are about to spend the next two years learning how to be a human.”

I have never heard truer words.

I can honestly say that I look at the world differently now than I did before because of the lessons I learned in my schooling, and I believe that you don’t have to become a performer in order to apply them.

Here is what I think everyone could learn from acting classes:

1. Self-awareness

You will find out what truly makes you tick, what you cherish most dearly, what hurts you most deeply, and what makes you most unique. You will come to understand what triggers specific emotions within you, and what motivates you to behave the way that you do.

A lot of us say we want to "find ourselves," but we don't really look into every corner because some of them can be scary. A good acting teacher will make you feel safe enough to go to those corners. It will still be scary, but also exhilarating. You will want to learn more, to challenge yourself more, but also to be more kind yourself.

2. Listening

You will hear it a thousand times, and when you finally start to do it, you will hear it a thousand times more. "LISTEN!" You won’t realize until you are told to do it two thousand times, how infrequently you actually do it in conversations.

How often do you decide what you will say in reply when someone's only gotten two words out? Or plan the way that you will steer a conversation before it happens? Do you ever really let every word sink in, and truly react upon those words?

This is difficult enough in real life, and even more challenging when you have memorized the entire conversation that will take place. But when you see a performance, it looks like they are having that conversation for the first time, right? Behold, the power of listening. When you really listen, you'll become a better communicator. You'll probably wonder how much you were missing before.

3. Vulnerability

We all walk around every day with barriers around us. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Most of us have to build some sort of walls in order to survive our day-to-day. Often, they form without our conscious effort or awareness.

You may have heard before that, “Actors have to develop a thick skin.” That’s just referring to the actual business aspect of acting. In the actual work, you have to be as penetrable as a soap bubble.

Acting school doesn't teach students to mimic the appearance of emotions. You have to be truly open and allow yourself to be affected in order to create the kind of response that'll win an Oscar.

Most of us are taught to keep a handle on our emotions. We learn that it isn't polite to have feelings in public. But really, that's where all the beautiful stuff in life happens. You'll want to keep that handle in certain situations, but when you get the chance to let go in a class, it feels really good.

If we don't allow things to affect us, not only is life pretty dull, but we don't grow. If we push away everything that makes us feel, we can't confront those feelings and learn from those experiences. When you allow yourself to have feelings, fully, more often, day-to-day life just becomes more.

4. Empathy

When you are trying to find yourself in a character, you will learn that humans aren’t all that different. If you search hard enough, you can find a level on which you can relate to anyone.

Just because you aren’t a mother, doesn’t mean you can’t feel the love of one. Just because you aren’t religious, doesn’t mean you can’t understand the devotion of a priest.

Everyone has obstacles and a positive motive that drives them. Even the "villain" does what they do because they believe it is the right thing to do. You cannot judge someone when it is your job to embody them.

Considering this will make make you want to be more caring, understanding, and forgiving.

...All the traits that the world really needs right now.

5. Appreciation of individuality

Doing the work it takes to embody a character will show you not only how we are all alike, but also how we are all different. You will hear over and over in an acting class that everything must be specific. No situation is ever "general." No person is ever "general." Nothing in the world is "regular." Everything and everyone is extraordinary.

If you give every single human in the world one specific task, each and every one of them will do it differently. The difference may be in the most microscopic detail, but it will be there. You cannot simply decide, “My character likes dogs.” Well, why do they like dogs? What are their first memories of dogs? Do they feel safer around dogs than other animals? Millions of people in the world like dogs, and they have very specific reasons why, that are completely unique to them.

You will appreciate yourself and every person that you meet so much more when you realize that every life that has ever taken place on this planet is a completely unique story. How amazing is that?

I would suggest to any person, in any career path, to take acting classes. A really good one is truly a lesson in being human. When you begin to really see the vibrancy of yourself and other people and living... Wow.

You won't need to wish that your life was as exciting as the movies when you realize that it already is.