To think that education can only happen within the constraints of four walls is to undermine the power of the biggest classroom: the world. Even though our professors have years of education and experience, they are not the only educators you will run into when you are willing to understand that everyone has a little knowledge to share. Studying abroad in Leipzig, Germany was the opportunity for me to realize that I will never stop learning and that there is something new to discover every day.
For three weeks, I was surrounded by a group of 12 passionate students who decided that they wanted to explore a new city by painting everything their eyes could catch. Every morning, we eagerly left our rooms to receive a lecture that would serve as a foundation for the rest of the day while we roamed through the city with our sketchbooks. This didn’t only allow us to create several works of art and learn new techniques, but it was an opportunity to admire the differences in our work. Even when we all sat in the same park, or hiked the same mountain, every student chose a different subject and interpreted it differently. At first, I thought that it made absolute sense for this to happen since we were all very different people, but then I realized that there was so much value behind the work of all of these artists. Their artwork reminded me that there is beauty in everything our Creator has made. Whether someone chose to paint the large building standing in front of them, a little bird that happened to stop for water near the fountain, or interesting people who rode the busy bus every morning without ever looking up from their phone — it was beautiful. It was not just a matter of skill, talent, or even the lessons we had discussed that morning; it was a matter of acknowledging what remains unseen to many and believing that it could make a beautiful work of art.
My classmates don’t have an undergraduate degree yet, nor are they professional artists ready to open their own galleries today, but I believe that they have all been gifted and have the potential to become that someday — maybe even more. When I chose to join this group in this endeavor, I didn’t know that those three weeks, a couple of cities, 12 artists, a talented professor, and a few missed trains would teach me so much. These are the greatest artists of this generation. We are the greatest artists of this generation. Not because we are the most talented or skilled, but because we had the courage to look at anything and believe it could make a beautiful masterpiece. That’s how I choose to see life now.
