Imagine you are laying back in a field of green grass, the breeze is sweeping the hair across your face while the sun is beating down onto your cheeks. You look around to see a red and brown songbird carrying vibrant red berries down from the sky to a safe nest. Pink bicycle tassels and purple flowers stick out from the brim of the stable roost. You pull out your sketchbook to begin drawing the American Robin that is now sustaining its family, as well as its shelter crafted from natural and synthetic materials. Creating something  genuine, spiritual, and tranquil, the world around you cascades onto your notepad.

Something has delicately fashioned those green grasses, red berries, and families of robins that you study. From the cellular level, a specialized plan for each living organism generates diversity and beauty on earth. Plants and animals are the creations of biological processes that we prize. Biology paints the picture of life on earth from DNA to a whole organism to the entire biosphere. Our vast earth is the art of biology.

While choosing a specialized education, you do not need to pick between STEM and humanities. To pick one and desert the other, you would disrupt the harmonious balance you once felt so strongly. Come back to the field of green grass, and try to separate the scene’s biological processes from its breathtaking products. You will not wish to study the factual portion of biology without appreciating its purpose as well. There are endless opportunities when it comes to career paths, so follow one that you enjoy. Create your own path if you must.

Your affinity for seeking the beauty in everything will take you far. To leave your purpose hanging to pursue a more ‘useful’ or ‘profitable’ profession would be a regretful mistake. As you weave your way through college, aspire to have a fulfilling existence in which you make room for the things that are important to you.

“Pastels” by ahisgett is marked with CC BY 2.0. No changes were made.

Art illustrates the feelings with which we struggle to articulate. Art communicates the aspects of life which we cannot verbalize. Art conveys the beauty of nature in a language exceeding scientific or factual. Look around and see the wonderful world of art that has been created by nature and biology. To leave behind the humanities is to leave behind authenticity, spirituality, and tranquility. Biology is a medium for ideas just as a pencil is a medium for art. The American Robin and its nest were built up from the basic concepts of biology. The humanities give us a medium to appreciate them.