Turns out I like math

I took a math final yesterday. It was the first math class I'd taken in about 6 years. All through elementary, middle, junior, and high school (and in college up to this point) I despised math. I always considered myself to be much more of an artistic type; I played music, wrote songs and performed them. I loved my English classes and I loved being creative. I guess I'd always subscribed to the whole "left brain-right brain theory" that we've all heard about, and I just assumed and accepted that I could either be one or the other, but certainly not both. I was right-brained and was therefore not suited for left-brained things. 

But, yesterday I realized something that shocked me. Are you ready for this?

I kind of like math. 

Crazy, right? I was surprised to discover, after I left my final yesterday, that I'm actually kind of looking forward to taking another math class next semester. At first I worried that maybe this meant I was becoming a left-brained person, that I'd have to give up my creativity and become a mathematician or accountant or something boring like that (my apologies to my mathematician and accountant friends). This thought actually scared me for a moment, but the ridiculousness of the sentiment sunk in quickly and clearly, and I realized that for years I had ignorantly clung to the notion that my propensity for creative thought should automatically create in me an aversion to logical thought. I never really hated math, I had just used this idea as an excuse to not work hard in math, which made it more difficult to understand, which made me really not enjoy it.

I'm starting to realize that this foolish idea of naturally hating one thing because I like its opposite has played a much larger role in my life than I thought. 

For example, in high school I was a sprinter and therefore "hated" cross-country running. I thought I had to pick one and dislike the other. In reality I like both, but back then I used my "dislike" for cross-country running as an excuse not to do it, and therefore never developed the endurance for it, and therefore never really enjoyed it.

Of course, I'm not saying that everything I thought I didn't like years ago, I actually did like. There are still plenty of things I genuinely don't like. But, now I wonder what I'm missing out on because I've been too stubborn to admit that I might like it?