“I Wanted to Study Everything”: Inara's Liberal Arts Story of Freedom and Flexibility
“After high school, I felt very lost because I wanted to study everything at once,” says Inara Bakhshaliyeva, a student of Liberal Arts in Humanities at Tallinn University. With specialisation modules in Cultural Analysis and Culture of English-Speaking Countries, she found the freedom and academic variety she had been searching for.
What did you think studying Liberal Arts in Humanities was going to be like?
So after graduating high school I felt very lost because I thought I won't be able to find a programme that suits me because I wanted to study so many subjects at once, like I wanted to study literature, history, culture and I found all of these courses in one programme which is Liberal Arts in Humanities.
Were your expectations met?
My expectations were definitely met because I had the opportunity to take courses which are related to my specialisation like literature, cultural studies and I also had the opportunity to take classes from different specialisations, such as Film Studies.
Overall, I'm really glad I chose Liberal Arts in Humanities programme. It is very flexible and it's very focused on the specialisations that you are interested in.
What’s has been your most memorable experience?
The most memorable experience for me was working on a group project which was about the role of the UK in the League of Nations and how it was presented in the past time and in the present time.
I chose that topic because it was challenging for me; it involved history and politics, which I’m not very familiar with. I thought, “Okay, wow, this is going to be hard,” but I was very happy that I chose that topic because as a group, me and my group mates, we worked on it really hard, we made the slides, we made the presentation and in the end when we presented it to our supervisors, we got a really positive feedback. So it was like a lesson for me to learn that sometimes stepping out of the comfort zone is something that we should all try to do.
What is it like to live in Tallinn?
Personally, living in talent has been so far amazing and great. I really like the public transportation system here. I think it's very convenient and easy to use and not to mention it's free of charge for the residents and for students who live in Tallinn and I really like this interesting feature about trams. All of the trams here have their own name which I think it's so sweet and overall living here just made my life so much easier as a student, and I feel very safe here.
About two years ago, when I first landed in Tallinn, the first thing that caught my attention was how clean and crisp the air is. I think that’s very much connected to how green the city is, there are so many forests here. It motivates me to go outside and walk every day.
If you really think about it, Tallinn is like a city within a forest. And what could be better than experiencing the best of both worlds?