When a humanities major and STEM major fall in love, it’s a college love story for the ages. Well, maybe not the ages, but it sure is a rarity. As an English major, I found myself completely feeling out of place in all things STEM-related. My boyfriend, a computer science major, had a practical approach to life and rarely found any literature before the 21st century stimulating.
Occasionally we argue over who has it harder or the way to approach things. But overall, I find myself constantly happy that I’m in a relationship with someone so different than me.
Sometimes I find myself looking over his shoulder to see the lengthy programs he’s constructing on his computer. Or he watches me completely engrossed in a novel for class. We share our thoughts over what we find beautiful in the world. I find different texts empowering and wonderful while he finds the logic behind a piece of code beautiful in its own unique way.
I found myself trying to learn what he studies on my own time to make up for the fact that we set off for separate paths in life. It’s hard to not understand what someone is explaining to you, especially when they’re so passionate about it. I often times wouldn’t get his inside jokes or the way he did work.
We were also on completely different schedules. He worked all throughout the night, as most computer science majors do, and I found myself reading during the day or writing essays before the evening due date. Despite all of our differences, I was determined to be proud of what I was studying and not let his college major get in the way of mine.
If I wanted to ask why things are the way they are rather than how they ended up to be, I would.
My friends often commented on my relationship, in shock over how two opposites can work so well together. I never really noticed how weird it was to be with someone doing something completely different than you. My advice for others in similar relationships is to appreciate the little things. Notice all of the stuff your significant other can teach you and make sure you’re doing the same for them. It’s important to be a well-rounded person and I’ve learned that being in this relationship is helping me do just that.
Our different majors don’t matter on the nights where we’re both studying or the nights where we go out because they don’t define us completely. I’m open to learning more about science-related things just like he is open to reading a Jane Austen novel once in a while.
Appreciating his tech help and practical way of looking at things is something I admit to often. Even though we’re different, we can always discuss things from our own points of view. In a way, it keeps things interesting.
Overall, I’ve learned that two very different minds can work together to make something beautiful. That’s what I see my relationship. Developing an open mindset was crucial and because of it, I found love.
