Whenever I was applying to college, I let my parents know that I felt equally torn between art and biology. My parents continously told me “well, you will find one of them calling out towards you as you continue through school”. I ended up at Georgia College in Milledgeville, GA for my undergraduate degree. I started school with a biology major and pre-med concentration. I dropped the concentration within 2 weeks of starting school and changed my major to studio art (dropping my biology major into my minor) after one semester at school. I still love biology and wanted to continue to study it, which is why I didn’t just “completely” drop it from my academic record. I did my senior project with special effects makeup (I was the pioneer of special effects makeup for a medium for my school), which was inspired by forensic photography. Most of my special effects makeup now is based on realism to fool the eye of horrific injuries and in the horror genre.
During my junior year I decided I wanted to do medical illustration, which was a “perfect” combination of art and my love for biology. However, I discovered the program I was interested in lost its accredidation status. With the help of my boyfriend (who is now my fiance) I decided to pursue a graduate degree in public health, which deals with preventative medicine. While pursuing my MPH degree, I continued to illustrate on the side.
I still love both art and biology. I know there’s many students in my shoes are are starstruck by two or more subjects (I had a good friend from my undergraduate school that ended up with one major and two minors because she had such vast interests). If students are starstruck by multiple subjects, let them pursue their interests. Will one “call out” more to them than the other? Maybe, but that is for them to decide.
