If you asked me to name three characteristics of Northern Renaissance art, I could do it in less than ten seconds. If you asked me to explain why fictional characters receive so much praise from people, I’d rant about Jay Gatsby for hours. And in the midst of that, I could still admiringly talk about different theories about the origins of life with an ardor for science you’ve probably very rarely ever seen before.
And after all that, you’d understand why it’s hard for me to pick one single major. But then I’d tell you something crucial: I go to a liberal arts college. And it’s been fantastic to have the option to study whatever piques my interest, and I love the intimacy of learning in a small class, and the wide range of opportunities.
But when I say that attending a liberal arts college has allowed my mind to develop many interests, it means something much more profound than what happens within the realms of the classroom. What if you asked me about witnessing people’s fears of being alone versus their need to go out? The advantages and disadvantages of existing within a miniscule campus? Witnessing efforts to expand diversity and yearning to get involved with the possibility of making a change? What you think about at two in the morning while you’re salivating over curly fries in the dining hall as opposed to when you’re gazing at the stars on the way back to your dorm after contemplating your major and very purpose of existence? That’s not academics; that’s life.
You can’t stuff these things in your mind in any ordinary classroom, or in fact, any classroom at all. These issues, the question of an existence or establishment of a community, the way you want to stop struggling to define social justice and at last witness it, whether you like feeling of being included or alone, why you think reading poetry defines you, how you express your opinions, are what I think a liberal arts “education” is all about.
Because as much as we’d like to avoid embracing it, as much as we’d like to fit ourselves into a little box and slap a major declaration on our foreheads as we embark into the real world, having a mind of many interests means wholly embracing every raw aspect of life. Yes, we sometimes feel alone, and we are sometimes—most times, actually—okay with that. No, we are not satisfied with certain aspects of campus culture, and as a result, we make efforts to defy convention. Yes, we possess an intellectual curiosity about the world itself that drives us to have multitasking minds.
Minds of many interests do not possess boundaries; we know that in order to learn—no, not memorize or understand things for an exam, but truly learn—horizons must be pushed past, comfort zones must be exited. Above all, we should not lose sight of the fact that our mind’s desire (and our own desire) to do many things is one of the biggest reasons why we came to Colgate. The courage to change the norm, the curiosity driving us to question what we are taught, the freedom to choose how we want to make a difference in our community, all comprise life. Life, in its simplest form, is an art, and a liberal arts education allows us to pick up the paintbrush with a creative freedom in living.
