Broaden your horizons in college by taking a class or two outside your comfort zone!
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When in college, expand your horizons by taking classes beyond your scope of knowledge. Who knows—you might enjoy them more than you think you will.
I’ve taken a few required classes in college that I initially dismissed as being unnecessary or a waste of time, which is a common sentiment among many students across the world. Conversely, I’ve chosen a few electives that I knew weren’t right up my alley (as a HUMSS girlie at heart). What these classes have in common is that I loved them, even though they weren’t necessarily aligned with the career path I wanted for myself.
For example, Political Philosophy and Biocultural Diversity are a far cry from media and journalism, but I’ll admit that I enjoyed them more than some classes I took under my program. In these classes outside of my comfort zone or sphere of interest, I took away lessons and knowledge that, while perhaps not directly helpful to my career, I value nonetheless.
LIFE ISN’T A STRAIGHT PATH, AND NEITHER IS LEARNING
For many students, college is about simply getting a degree so they can get to working to earn a living. We can’t really blame them—the modern education system is often criticized for leaving no room for exploration, imagination, creativity, and freedom of thought. It’s all about creating the perfect employee, because that’s what the modern world requires.
However, few are lucky to be in environments that foster even some semblance of critical thinking and allow them to realize that the world is theirs for the taking—and that manifests in the multitude of opportunities presented to us in university. Life isn’t a path where you have to walk in a straight line, only doing what you know, taking only classes that’ll help you in your future job, just to get to where you want to go. There’ll be detours and twists and turns and opportunities, and opening yourself up to exploring them and learning from each one might just make your journey that much more enjoyable or even fulfilling.
EXPANDING MY HORIZONS
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Have you ever encountered takes online along the lines of “Why do we even learn math? We don’t use it?” or “Why am I studying about culture and society when I’m a STEM major?”? In a broader socio-cultural sense, it’s a pretty dangerous way of thinking, because, for instance, not promoting the learning of the humanities and social sciences leads to a decline in understanding, critical thinking, and creativity. Exploring subjects outside my realm of interest only made me see things on a broader perspective, as I got to connect new concepts, topics, and skills with everything I’ve already known. The brain gears were turning!
BEING AROUND GOOD PEOPLE GOES A LONG WAY
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Good instructors or even classmates can make a class so much more enjoyable. Often, when you have a professor that’s passionate about the subject and deeply committed to helping their students learn (and is also open to learning from them), the hours won’t feel so excruciatingly long, and you’ll feel inspired to drink it all in.
GRADES REALLY AREN’T EVERYTHING
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I didn’t get the best grades in the classes I knew I wasn’t as good at as the ones more aligned with my program—and you know what? That was perfectly fine, because sometimes what you take away at the end of the semester is more important than your GPA or being on the Dean’s list.
From valuable life lessons in philosophy to hands-on experiments in biotech, some classes taught me things that I know I’ll take with me even after I graduate, whether or not they’ll directly help me with my career. That says a lot, considering how many required classes I’ve taken in my life where I ended the semester feeling unsatisfied.
So I was fine with what grades I ended up with—I can still say I learned a lot, like how to stop using the phrase “educate people,” especially when talking about communities, because it undermines other people’s understanding and agency in learning. I learned that in a science communication class!
GRATITUDE FOR LEARNING
Even now, I look back at those classes fondly, because it opened my eyes to what learning could be—fun, exciting, inspiring, and hope-giving. Learning can be difficult, but it’s so easy to recognize how learning different things can benefit us in many ways.
It’s easy to want to choose electives, classes, or even courses, that you perceive as “easy As,” because again, the current system pushes us to quantify value and prioritize good grades so you can secure a good future. But don’t feel as if you always have to. If you have the privilege of doing so, go beyond it all and exercise your brain.
Sure, you can sign up for electives that’ll supplement what you’re learning in your degree program, but if you want, you can also take classes a world away from your course and career path. You’re free to do so, despite how much society might tell you you’re not. Take them because you truly want to learn something new. It can be a leap of faith sometimes, but trust, you’ll get something valuable out of it for sure.
Continue Reading: How Voluntarily Taking Online Courses Can Benefit Us In More Ways Than One
