While sitting in the cafeteria the other day - mindlessly scrolling through Tumblr, avoiding my academic responsibilities (because let's admit it, who doesn't?), I overheard one of the most disheartening statements of my college career:

"Why do we even have to take an arts credit? Like, it just doesn't matter. It's just a huge hassle for me."

Now, I will admit this: I am a very proud music major. Coming from a somewhat non-musical background, and not knowing anything about the academic side of music, my time becoming an academic musician has been quite precious to me, and incredibly definitive of my character. So yes, I may be somewhat biased, but I genuinely believe that we are all better if we understand a little bit more about the arts. Not just music, but visual art, theatre, dance - any of the arts make us a more well-rounded student, and more profoundly, a better person.

As a student in liberal arts university (cough, cough), we have an expectation to take a required amount of coursework that surveys the wide range of arts and sciences. Just like any non-arts major, I, a vocal performance major, have taken course work dealing with natural sciences, history, and formal reasoning. I've been lucky enough to take coursework with professors I wouldn't have ever gotten to meet otherwise, as well as students who I would never have gotten to know had it not been for having to wake up at 8 a.m. for general psychology every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the fall of my sophomore year. Some of my best friends and most impactful professors haven't been related to music at all.

Social aspects aside, taking classes outside of music have directly impacted my music making. My Introduction to Biblical Thinking class, which I initially took as just a gen ed, ended up being one of the most important classes I've taken. I now look at Biblical texts in a significantly different way and have a stronger sense of how to interpret the texts. The majority of classical music written has been in relation to Judeo-Christian thought, and now, I feel like I have a unique performance to offer when singing those texts. Understanding that history makes me a better singer.

So, yes, the sciences have impacted my art. But, here's the thing: it works the other way, too.

While it may not seem to be so on the surface, the arts are far more theoretical and abstract than one may assume. Think about the mathematics of music, the proportions of sonic frequencies that create a major scale. The element of anatomy for singers, knowing our bodies inside and out in order to cultivate and maintain a beautiful tone, begins with the health of our vocal folds. The need to understand sensation and perception while discussing color theory with your studio art professor. Believe it or not, there is a science to art, one that, unfortunately, tends to be ignored by students who find their arts credit more of an "obligation," and less of a chance to understand why a painting can be moving, or why you always smile when you hear your favorite song.

Sure, I may be standing on my soapbox, preaching about how you should maximize your education in your arts gen ed. But, I sign off with this: We've come to a liberal arts university to learn more about what we want to learn about. And while this art class may seem like the bane of your collegiate career, I promise if you open your mind to the cosmopolitan world of art, you'll get a lot more out of it than you expect.