Art isn't a privilege; it's a necessity.

As a female, I’ve always prided myself in having an interest in Science. I feel like there isn’t enough support for girls who want to pursue careers in math/science/technology, and I want to be part of the change that is this generation (I never said this blog post wouldn’t be cheesy. Take this as a warning). But even though I dream of being an oncological researcher one day, I can’t ignore the fact that my interests in the arts also define me. For years, I’ve been slightly embarrassed by my love for reading and writing and music, because I felt like it was just too stereotypical girl. It fit the gender roles I loathed far too well: little boys play with trucks, little girls tend to ‘crying’ baby dolls; teenage boys learn to solve the world’s problems, teenage girls write poems about their feelings; grown-up boys hold a briefcase, grown-up girls hold Windex. I detested the prospect of seeming less intelligent than a male, because I would rather read a book than solve a Calculus problem.

In recent months I’ve realized the utter idiocy of this insecurity. All my life, I’ve been told that scientific and mathematical knowledge are the avenues to actually making a tangible difference in this world. From the invention of the light bulb, the steam engine, the telephone, who can argue that careers in numbers change the world? But, I felt like I was missing some integral part of the equation. Does the development of civilization depend only on mechanical calculations, or do the softer sides of our brains play an equal role?

These questions had lingered in the recesses of my mind for years, but did not come to fruition until I heard Professor Cook-Gailloud deliver a presentation dealing with the processing of language and learning at Johns Hopkins University. She began her presentation with eight simple words: “Art is not a privilege; it’s a necessity.” She explained how the spread of language fostered communication and a sense of community among disparate people thousands of years ago, and how it continues to do so. Many evolutionary biologists, even, hold the view that a high level of communication between Homo sapiens led to the extraordinary development of cognitive intelligence that distinguishes our species from all others in the animal kingdom. Before humans had invented the wheel, men and women were producing cave paintings in an effort to understand the natural world that they belonged to; before the dawn of the Agricultural Revolution, people were singing and telling stories around fires, spiritually linking themselves to each other through the art produced by their own voices. The point I’m trying to make out of all this is that art precedes mechanics. If humans cannot sit and think and make sense of the world we live in – as our ancestors once did – our sense of purpose will cease to exist.

My encounter with Professor Cook-Gailloud helped me understand the vital importance of Literature as a means for expression; instead of being ashamed of my fascination with the arts, I’ve come to truly embrace it. I realize that Science and Language have similar aims: to make sense of the world. While Physics achieves this purpose through means of formulas to explain concrete occurrences, Language describes both the abstract and the tangible through words and ideas.