“An eighty five is a crap grade,” my freshman year high school history teacher said to us on the first day of class. These words set the standard for the rest of my high school career. Anything less than an eighty-five, or a B-, counted as a failure, no exceptions. This mindset created a lot of anxiety around school. Getting good grades meant success; it meant getting into a good college and earning the respect of my teachers and peers. It didn’t seem to matter if I retained the knowledge so long as I did well on the test. This “fixed mindset,” as Carol Dweck would call it, caused a lot of unnecessary stress and anxiety around school. One of my goals this year is to improve my mental health and a big part of that is changing my mindset when it comes to my education.

I want to declare a major this year. I have interests in both the arts and sciences which makes getting a liberal arts education a good choice for me. Many people think that the liberal arts only includes the humanities, however the liberal arts covers a variety of disciplines spanning from “the natural and social sciences to the humanities and the performing arts” (Scheuer 3). The purpose of a liberal arts education is to provide students with a broad understanding of a variety of subjects and cultivate creative and innovative thinking.