Creativity

When I was young, my parents always encouraged me to use my imagination. To be creative. That little pink crayon and perforated sheet of printer paper my dad brought home from work was my paint and easel. I might’ve gotten carried away with a Sharpie on my brand new wall-papered room, but that’s another story for another time. In any case, those scribbled lines I drew were comparable to Da Vinci himself! At least, that’s how my parents made me feel. They were always encouraging me. What? You’re three but you want to read what your six-year-old brother reads? Go ahead, give it a shot! You wanna try cheerleading? Sure. You wanna go to your friend’s house and sleep over? Of course you can. You wanna cover the driveway with chalk? Have at it kid! Lemonade stand? Here, let me help you make the sign.

What happened to all of that? To being creative, and using the imagination. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who still do that, and I say kudos to you. We live in a world that puts people into boxes, and label them with permanent maker. Telemarketer. Accountant. Prostitute. Sinner. Drug Dealer. Bank Teller. And we feel stuck in those positions because the world isn’t very good at igniting creativity.

Sure, the world is full of really awesome commercials, (especially apple, why is that?) that shows how creative THOSE people are, but what do they do to ignite others to dig into their own internal creativity? Not much. Its a sad thing too. I used to be creative through music. I played 13 instruments. Now I play the piano, occasionally when I visit my parents. I write still, but it’s shoddy at best. I take pictures too, and I’m decent with that as well but I have a LOT to learn. I’m tied to a computer 12 hours a night, 3, 4, sometimes 5, 6 nights a week. But, I’m always hearing music in my head (August Rush, as of late) and I’m always thinking. Wondering what I could be if I just pushed myself beyond the boundaries I have so carefully built up around me. Its a scary thing, because knocking down those walls will open up the opportunity to be hurt, to be criticized, to be laughed at, to be all of those things I’ve been mortified of since I was the kid everyone picked on at school so many years ago. Things like that leave their mark, no matter how much time has gone by. But slowly, hopefully I’ll be able to remove the wall I’ve built. One brick at a time. Because I believe I, like you, and everyone else, has an immeasurable amount of creativity, and the only thing in the way are the walls we’ve built. Sure, we’ve kept the bad stuff out, but we’ve kept the amazing stuff in too. It’s time to let the amazing stuff out.