When you study humanities or liberal arts, you are basically observing the human experience. Through philosophy, literature, art, religion, and history you learn so much more than the mere writings of Aristotle and Homer, sadness in the Blues, and the history of Mona Lisa. You learn about other people and their culture, society, and most importantly you learn about yourself. Studying the humanities makes you reflect on what you now know about Greek culture from reading the “Iliad”, how oppression inspired those sad songs, and that Mona Lisa may be ambiguously smiling to show that humankind is not truly happy despite how much we want to believe that it is. Life is full of mystery and indescribable feelings, and humanities buffs take absolute joy in trying to put those pieces together.

After being heavily involved in college level English and Literature courses for over four years, I have noticed a major shift in how I see both my world and the world around me. I see nothing but positive change and opportunity from reading and analyzing Literature on an almost daily basis. Unfortunately, there is a social stigma that studying the humanities is pointless and reaps no benefit beyond creating a bunch of offended leftist grammar Nazis with a well-endowed vocabulary to make their opinions possible. Let me be firm in saying that this stigma is incredibly incorrect. Studying the humanities has opened my eyes to the reality of our existence, making me a well-rounded person and student, a fierce competitor in the job market, and amazingly informed.

Here is how studying the humanities has blessed me with my sense of humanity and promotes a unique perspective that makes life savvy continuously fascinating:

1. I can better understand other cultures

Coming from a public school system in rural Alabama, I received virtually no exposure to the world beyond the southern comforts of empty greetings, Sunday service, and “ya’ll”. I did not see the need for learning another language, understanding anything about another culture, or discussing differences between religions. I was content with remaining ignorant, and that was a large crime I now realize I committed against myself. It took one class for me to realize how intolerant and ignorant I was of diversity, and one class to make me change to a global perspective.

Now when I read Wole Soyinka’s “Death and the King’s Horseman” I see the beauty in Nigerian rituals and their sense of duty and sacrifice, even if it goes against my Westernized upbringing, for example. By reading and analyzing texts like these, you dive into the culture, into the life, and into the meaning of every detail. Humanities majors have to understand various forms of culture and appreciate them in order to be successful. By reading and analyzing culture in the ways we do, we take in a lot more than dialog and time stamps. We develop tolerance and respect for differences, form a deeper and more intimate level of understanding for culture and beliefs that go far beyond our own, and embrace what we know to enlighten the world around us to the beauty of diversity.

2. I found my voice for social justice

A beautiful thing about literature is that it is indirectly savage in its message. Writers write with intent, and usually, it’s to make a profound statement against something. I will never forget the moment that the concept of social justice in literature clicked for me. I was reading “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad and a classmate said that they supported imperialism because “the white man knows best”. Before I realized what had happened my chest was burning, I was incredibly disgusted and angry, and I spoke over my classmate to juxtapose the point.

I went from being the quiet girl to the passionate advocate of exposing social injustice in writing. I have never stopped using my voice to discuss social justice and I never will. The humanities enlightened me with many concepts (gender inequality, prejudices, social depravity), and now I can see them clearly in our society at an overwhelming rate and speak/ write against them.

3. Empathy, empathy, and more empathy

After you read and critically analyze literature for an extended amount of time, being empathic becomes a strong personality trait. Many studies have been conducted proving that through reading literary fiction, one is able to develop a greater capacity to understand what others are thinking and feeling. It’s all psychological, and the human mind is definitely something humanities enthusiasts love to pick apart

This is the process. You’re reading a work of literary fiction and are subconsciously trying to understand the characters and their relationships, but there are gaps and details missing that explain the motivations and feelings of the characters. As you try to fill in those confusing little spaces, you’re developing something amazing. Say hello to empathy, the charming little door to understanding the human condition! This psychological awareness from analyzing characters transfers to the real world, which is full of complex lives and feelings that are difficult to understand. Those who study the humanities incorporate this technique as a lifestyle, constantly working to relate and understand the world and the people that create its uniqueness. With this form of social conditioning, we embrace the notion that understanding the people around us is equally as important as understanding ourselves; however, this is a challenging process that can only be made possible by developing a great sense of empathy for humanity’s sake.

4. I’ve become incredibly introspective and I love it (sometimes)

This is the most riveting, yet terrifying aspect of studying the humanities. In general, terms, to be introspective means that you look into yourself and try to make sense of who you are. From a more introspective analysis on the concept of introspection, it’s how you psychologically examine your own conscious thoughts, feelings, mental state. Extremely introspective people take this to a new level with spirituality and examine their soul. That’s when things get intimidating.

Have you ever really taken the time to be introspective, and I mean really introspective? I do on a regular basis now, and trust me when I say it’s the thorny stem that leads to the budding rose. One minute you’re enjoying the peace and tranquility on your back porch at three in the morning and the next you’re in an angry fit because you realize you’re a mess. It’s that moment when you find comfort in knowing that even as a unique soul you’re just like everyone else, but also find yourself incredibly discontent with that idea.

I see how the humanities play a major role in not only forming the base for being introspective but launching one into the process that leaves you sitting alone outside at ungodly hours in the morning just to get a grip on yourself. The work that knocked me down and made me start to ponder myself is a spoken word poem called “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” by Olivia Gatwood which discusses the desire to find individuality. It isn’t easy. It goes against all comfort zones and you will realize some terrible things about yourself, but it brings you one step closer to finding the humanity (and sometimes your lack of) of you on an intimate level.

5. I thrive when working critically and logically with complicated information

This is kind of a no-brainer. The humanities force you to read, write, read again, correct your writing, read more, keep adding, keep reading, analyze this, think about that… you get the idea. I tell my friends on a regular basis, like anyone else in humanities, “I can’t do (blank) tonight because I have a paper”. We aren’t playing around, and we probably can’t do anything for the next four nights either. The analysis and writing processes are constant, and with practice makes you somewhat adequate in the eyes of your professor, sometimes.

The thing that makes this area incredibly difficult to work with is that writing is both subjective and imperfect. This is why many professors and teachers will refuse to give a 100 on a paper because it is impossible to generate perfect writing. Most of the time we’re not working with easy reads either to analyze either. Needless to say, we are pretty well-equipped to take complex information, break it down in a deep analysis, and argue our findings with advanced writing skills. Everyone knows that the more you read, the better you become as a person, but the more you read the better you get at working critically with an overwhelming amount of information as well. Does it really get any better to love what you do and prep yourself to be confident in your thinking, writing, and communication skills for the job force? If there were cupcakes and social equality actually existed, maybe so.

6. I am an open-minded skeptic

We take pride in being open-minded in multiple ways and knowing that there are inconsistencies in everything. To me, being one-sided is the same thing as having no opinion. I’ll use colonization in the New World as an example:

After Columbus discovered what is today America, immigrants began to flood and colonize the territory for new opportunities; however, the Native American population and their history has been desecrated by the people who desired the new opportunity. We get that one side was looking for freedom and we see how the Native Americans were viewed as an obstacle. However, we also have to see the cruel nature of the process used to obtain that happiness and the detrimental effects on an innocent culture and its people. If you say “I support the move to the New World” without knowing the plight of the natives, then you don’t support the move to the New World. You cannot rationally support something without knowing both sides. At that point you’re not supporting anything, just spewing out the little bit of biased information that you know.

Studying the humanities forces you to think about and empathize with multiple sides from multiple perspectives. That’s just being rational and open-minded. It also teaches us to be skeptical. You cannot take things for face value or fully invest in one opinion. The world is vast and painted intrinsically through the eyes billions of artists, not just Picasso, so go tour the gallery before you see the world through just “Guernica” or “The Weeping Woman”.

7. It takes a creative person to understand life’s challenging questions

The brutal reality is that life is tricky and we all have a lot of questions that we don’t know how to answer, but humanities enthusiasts find joy in being creative to figure things out. The biggest question I’ve been pondering lately is what true human happiness is and how we find it.

I read a play called “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett a few months ago and it really got me thinking. Two goofy guys are waiting for some unknown figure called Godot (possibly God), but he never comes. They contemplate suicide to subside their boredom and drink to make the time pass. They constantly forget why they are waiting and can’t understand it, but keep waiting anyway. On the second day, they do the exact same thing, so they never stop waiting on the unknown.

It makes no sense to keep waiting for nothing, but yet we all do it anyway. Go to work, go to school, go home. Eat, sleep, repeat. What gives life meaning are those little feats of happiness that are often not too common. The majority of our existence is mundane, repetitive, and honestly quite dismal if you think about it. As an example, why do we continue to focus on toxic relationships when they make us feel bad? One idea is that they provide us with little feats of sheer happiness amongst the norm of unhappiness, so we cling to it. In the world of humanities, we look at concepts like this regularly and try to think outside the box to make sense of the unknown.

8. I’ve found my life-long passions early

It took over twenty years, but the humanities helped me get there. I used to think my passions were watching “The Office” and eating sushi (to be fair I still do both regularly with my cat), but I do not view this as a passion anymore despite how pleasant that experience it. Even though I’m a Literature buff, reading and writing are more past-times than passions as well. After studying humanities I’ve realized my passion is discussing humanities. Those who love humanities love intellectual conversation about their observations. We find joy in forming our own ideas and sharing them, listening to the ideas and opinions of others, and gaining new perspectives.

I have yet to encounter another person who studies humanities who does not care to engage in intellectual conversation because they disagree with the initial opinion. We love to grow and understand those around us, even when it makes us lose our faith in humanity. Having a passion of discussion like this means that I will never stop growing and learning as a person. The humanities have not stifled my scope but expanded the lens so I can work with a bigger picture.

9. I’m starting to realize where I fit in

The world of humanities is challenging, beautiful, and ambiguous. The best thing I have been able to take is the importance of the individual experience and sharing it because we all are interconnected. The humanities have made me realize that I fit in within this world because I don’t fit in at all. I am my own form of madness— an anxious overthinker, an angry optimist, and a soft-hearted rebel. I read poems for fun and write because I have too many things to say. Isolation is my comfort and silence speaks to me in volumes. I thank the humanities for showing me that just like everyone else, I am not like anyone at all. And I’m content with that.