Essay:Left or Right

It was a few days ago when I had a couple of people over my house and there was an interesting debate as to what ‘Major’ was the best. It all started out with mini jokes with the occasional elbow nudge and a chuckle-wink. But once the conversation got a more serious tone, it was interesting…and scary.

In the end, I found that a lot of the liberal arts majors don’t like the science majors, and vice versa. I found this…oddly disturbing. I felt a bit pulled apart, mostly because my liberal art major friends said that the science majors were too logical and were rather boring. Whereas my friends in the science majors were like: “They’re dreamers”. I was just in between trying to protect both sides, probably looking a bit silly as I tried to calm the slowly growing tension. Thankfully my group of friends are rather reasonable people---so the tension wasn't as bad as it could've been. But here I am, sitting in between, what seems two different worlds.

Does it seem like that much of a difference? Is there really that large of a void between the two?

I found that this way of thinking was a bit arrogant. Each believed that their preferred area of development is the most worthy of respect.

Mental Self is screaming: Let me spell it out for you: Not one is more worthy than the other.

I am Biology major and a Anthropology Minor...with a serious passion for science and guess what? I have a passion for art too. And even more amazingly, I have a passion for rational thinking.

Is your mind blown yet?

My father is a Professor in Spanish Literature and my mother is a researcher for Diabetes and Alzheimers at PBRC. I've grown up with science books in one hand and Classical literature in the other, then with doodles on the corners of my notebook pages to keep everything more interesting. It is that passion and creativity that is fostered in all areas of development. I don’t care if you really enjoy RPG character designing, painting, vector calculus, or whacking balls in mini-golf, you can become creative in your field. Last I checked we had a brain. One brain, with two sides. We’re not just left OR right-brained: believe it or not, the most of us have both hemispheres!

I am tired of the self-proclaimed “truly creative” artists claiming that areas requiring deduction and logical reasoning skills are more “bland” and “emotionless.”

I am tired of the self-proclaimed “smart” scientists and academicians claiming that areas involving more emotional intelligence as opposed to strict deductive reasoning are less useful for the development of society.

Guess what? You can be intelligent, creative and downright brilliant in your ability to further the growth of society… no matter what you are passionate about. Art, science, and everything in between are integrated at their core and we need all specialties to work together to further the growth of humanity.

Let us respect what we enjoy individually and fields others may be more skilled in than ourselves. When people begin to learn and respect each other, together we can build a better future.