Brained – Demythitized

Brained

Are we left brained or right brained? Are we artistic or scientific? For some people one side or the other may indeed be their strength or weakness. However, I do not think that a person is limited to one side or the other, and in my case, I think it is bull shit.

Here is a list of properties between the two sides according to The Daily Telegraph:

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
“big picture” oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can “get it” (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

In high school I was involved in Forensics and Debate and currently at the university level I find myself in several officer positions in clubs and actively involved in many events. Personally, I find myself literate, logical and reality based. However, I often find myself thinking of these crazy plans of what I plan to do with my life, I paint, I play sax, I like to jump off of cliffs into water(a bit outgoing) and I have feelings, yet I am into science and math.

I also recently took a test at similiarminds.com and I found myself very closely matched between the two sides (slightly more left brained). I also took saw the spinning dancer at The Daily Telegraph only to realize according to the article I was right brained. So which one is it?

When I was younger and in grade school, my mother and I lived on my grandparent’s farm and I found farm machinery fascinating. When I entered middle school I became very artistic and took a lot of art classes at a glass museum in a nearby city. When I entered high school I discovered physics and fell in love, only to realize that I loved playing music as much as I enjoyed reading about the properties of subatomic particles, Fermi Lab and the fundamentals of nuclear chemistry.

I think that it is possible to be both artistic and scientific. I know of students at my own university that have dual majored in both engineering and music and succeeded. I, myself am triple majoring in Aerospace Engineering, Music Technology and German for the BA’s and BS degrees. I think that if you work hard enough you can work both sides of the brain and do away with this myth. The only reason people aren’t good at math is because they either; never tried hard enough, didn’t care, didn’t have the money or chance to learn while they were young and willing, or they have some mental or physical condition limiting them.

I hope this opens some of your minds who think that you are one or the other. A spinning dancer cannot tell you what type of a person you are, none the less the type of thinker you are.