I took Narrative and Medicine in the spring semester of my freshman year in hopes that it would be an interesting literature GenEd, but the class ended up being much more influential than I originally thought. The course focused on how illness and our experience with failing health is not just a list of symptoms or a problem to solve, but instead is a story, and thinking of it as such can allow us to have agency over our experiences dealing with the medical field. Throughout the semester we read a series of narratives in different formats to show different choices and portrayals of illness, which helped to combat the idea of the experience of sickness as the same for everyone involved. Exposure to these different narratives taught me that everyone experiences illness differently, and being able to write about or express ones illness on their own terms may allow them the emotional processing or understanding they need to choose to stop or continue forward in their treatment. My professor was a graduate student himself, so he understood the rigors of life as a student and strove to make the class relatable and impactful for an undergraduate. Overall, I think the most important thing I came to understand through this class was the relationship between the sciences and the humanities, and how important it is that future STEM majors are not just learning all math and science in their undergraduate careers. Studies have shown that exposure to the humanities fosters skills that STEM classes do not always emphasize, so by implementing a curriculum that is comprehensive we are creating well rounded students who are more equipped to understand and take on the world around them.