KAITLYN SPECHT
Editor-in-Chief
Though many of us come to a liberal arts college with an interest in a variety of subjects, there are also many of us who find they despise a particular subject.
More than that, we might actually berate or degrade some of these subjects. Even before I came to Denison, I was one of these people.
Sure, I had an interest in almost every kind of humanities subject, but when it came to science, I dreaded it. Science is a difficult subject for me, and because of that, I tended to discount it. I found that this kind of attitude went both ways, however.
When I would have conversations with friends of mine who are majoring in the sciences, any complaint I made about my work load or classes was immediately met by an attitude of, “well, at least you aren’t a science major. We have it much worse.”
After that, it was hard for me to take the sciences seriously, as silly as it might sound. I felt as if all people in the sciences found as if their work was inherently more challenging or even more important.
This idea was well on its way to being ingrained in my brain forever until my best friend and I formed an agreement. I took a biology course and she took a creative writing course.
Before going into that class, I thought that science used a totally different kind of thinking from creative writing, and that it was all about memorization. But when I took that class, I found that the labs required a bit of creativity, especially when creating your own experiments.
This was the moment when I began to see the art in science, when I began to see how much energy is required in a science course. Similarly, my friend has told me that she has found creative writing to be much more difficult than she imagined. It takes creativity, patience and an eye for detail that perhaps she hadn’t understood going into the class.
Now, however, as we both have taken classes in the other’s area of study, we are able to truly appreciate the endeavors of the other and understand the kind of work it takes to study in the humanities and the sciences.
You might think that other majors have it easier than you do, but at Denison, the liberal arts curriculum challenges that notion. Treat other areas of study with respect, and if you still find yourself in doubt, take a class in that department.
One of the luxuries we have here is the ability to try new things and to look at things through other perspectives, so take advantage of it, and Denisonians can truly embrace every area of study here.
Kaitlyn Specht ‘19 is a creative major from Somerville, Ohio.