My first two years at USF had been pretty busy and packed as a biomedical sciences student with challenging STEM classes, research, and clubs taking up all of my time. This year, as a junior, I comparatively have much more free time. Unfortunately, these long periods of spare time actually led me feeling very lost and confused. Upon reflection, I realized my main interests in life circled around my academic passions. This is a common lifestyle for many college students however, I was bothered by this realization. Overtime, my more creative passions have taken the back burner more and more often. And so, I have made the decision beginning this semester to bring in more of my “non-academic” passions into my daily life.
Though my academic passions for medicine and the sciences still stand, I have taken the step this semester to deep-dive into my interests such as photography, editing, fashion, dance, and creative writing. I don’t tell myself I’ll “do them later when I have the time” or save them for special occasions. I want to treat these interests not as hobbies but as actual skills. I can’t ever see my full potential in these interests if I only “practice” it every other week. Like any other skill, I must exercise the creative muscle and practice these skills often to master them.
Even though this semester, I may be pursuing interests that may not seem “practical” in other people’s eyes, I am trying to live out the quote from Dead Poet’s Society —
“Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits & necessary to sustain life, but poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
Because at the end of the day, when we go through a long workday or a stressful week, it’s art that we turn to. We connect with the artist who is able to put what we are feeling down into words and paintings and songs. Maybe you turn to singers to heal by listening to breakup songs after a failed relationship, or cinema by watching your comfort TV show after a loss, or authors by escaping into a new world by reading a good book. And even better is healing not through the consumption of art but rather through creating art yourself. To become an artist and go on a deeper journey of self-discovery than as a consumer.
However, due to the “go-go-go” mentality I’ve been surrounded by, a small voice in my head even now chides me sometimes for “wasting time” by slowing down and enjoying the present moment and view. In my Poetry 2 class, I was introduced to Mary Oliver and her poems. Oliver is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poem known for her comforting and nature-based poems. Two poems titled “The Journey” and “Wild Geese” encouraged me to take this detour in my life and comforted my need to be hyper productive. Every day, I strive to have confidence in the path I take, regardless if I have a few detours or even double back to my starting point.
Happy reading!