Think of the last time you pursued reading or music or another hobby. Not to round off college applications or for the sake of your peers, but merely for pleasure. That’s what I figured — hasn’t been since middle school, or an era where your schedule was composed of more free time than you knew what to do with.

Today, we spend far too much time forcing high-school age kids to singularly pursue specific fields — medicine, law or business — when we should be nurturing interest in all areas.

Let’s hark back to the era when people were truly well-rounded: the Renaissance. If you couldn’t compose poetry, paint, craft swords, joust, write, compose music, draft architectural blueprints or serenade locals, you were simply a peasant toiling in the fields.

Now, kids feel forced to partake in majors and careers they wouldn’t necessarily pursue if they were exposed to a wider variety of subjects. Particularly, ambitious students tend to ignore the culture around them and solely choose neuroscience, engineering or other lucrative fields.

Pursue these, but don’t forget the importance of being cultured and enjoying life. If a fixation on one of these professions is your calling, your utmost desire, then by all means, ignore the leisure time to dabble in other subjects.

Slight caveat, I must say — throughout the first three years of my high school career, I did not make the most of leisure time. But as a senior whose worsening illness (the contagious, omnipresent senioritis) may lead me to be bed-ridden for the next few weeks, I wish I had.

We need to go through another Renaissance — much like the one Matthew McConaughey has gone through (the McConaissance, if you will). Let’s trade B-list rom-coms for “Interstellar“ and “Mud“ and those Lincoln commercials where no one is entirely sure what’s happening. Honestly, though, does McConaughey even know what’s happening in those commercials? Does he understand the joke?

Regardless of McConaughey’s understanding, we need to appreciate subjects on all levels before we determine our career. Do you really want to be cooped up in a cubicle, yearning for the outside world and things that might have been? If you answer yes, that is fine, but please at least consider the appeal of the outdoors and educate yourself on the merits of other fields.

McConaughey, like God in Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam, “ beckons to us.

“There are fierce powers at work in the world, boys,” McConaughey’s character Mud says. “Good, evil, poor luck, best luck. We’ve got to take advantage where we can.”

Clearly, we must take heed of Mud’s advice and take advantage where we can, exploring the depths of subjects ranging from art history to analysis of modern film. We can’t marginalize students or tell them to pursue wealth at all costs — these are still developing minds, needing exposure to art, film, literature and all stages of the Renaissance (and McConaissance!).