For the first time in a very long time, I’m breaking up my schedule and taking an elective. I can confidently say it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time.

When you register each semester, it is suggested that you prioritize your core classes. What classes are necessary for your major? What do you need in order to graduate?

I am not saying that your required classes aren’t important. Lord knows they should be at the top of your list, especially when your classes can be filled up in minutes, leaving you high and dry for a semester.

But, we cannot forget how much fun it can be to take an elective course, or to break up the mundanity of our schedules with one or two each semester. This is what I have learned this semester.

After years of just taking the classes I needed, I am taking the opportunity to explore something I have never tried before—acting. Two days every week, I meet up with a group of awesome people who share my curiosity toward the performing arts, people who help me realize, I should have done this sooner.

It has been a breath of fresh air, to shut off the part of my brain that just soaks up lecture after lecture on operant conditioning and the clinical interview and do something so wildly creative.

Acting is now something I love doing, something I never would have known I could enjoy so much if I only took my required courses and ignored everything else.

We never know what we can do if we never do it, and that is why I encourage you to take advantage of the hundreds of courses this university has to offer. I found something I love doing when I decided to take an elective, and when the options are so diverse, there’s sure to be something amazing waiting for you, too.