Creativity - My Passion

by Nicole

Lauren had the great idea to have each of us road-trippers highlight our passions in a personal blog post. I was at first very intrigued by the idea and commended Lauren right away on her commitment to the blog and our quest for self discovery. Then, it hit me. I don't know what my passion is! I have actually started a blog detailing my journey towards finding my life's passion in which I say "Yes" to everything that I have an interest in. After a work days worth of consideration, I have decided on a passion to talk about: Creativity. It may not be a specific field, hobby or career path, but I can say boldly that I am passionate about being creative. In fact, I swoon over the idea of being creative and bask in any chance that I have to express myself in this way.

As far back as I can remember, I have been attracted to anything that makes me think "out of the box" (the theme song to Playhouse Disney's "Out of the Box" is playing in my head as I write this). My earliest memory of being creative (actually a story that my mom tells me that I only vaguely remember) was when I was between three and four years old. My mom woke up one morning and came to see if I was awake yet. When she looked in my room I wasn't there. She, of course, panicked and began to search for me around the house. When she couldn't find me there she opened the front door and there I was, digging a hole in the front yard (the outline of the hole actually still remains in the yard, though we've tried to fill it in numerous times). When my mom asked me what I was doing I just said, "a hole!". I can't tell you now why I decided that it would be a good idea to go outside alone early in the morning to dig a hole, but I do know that I must have had a reason to do so at the time.

Even today I find myself doing things that seem somewhat strange or crazy because I feel like "I have to" in order to better understand myself. A recent example would be my decision to cover my bicycle with Peanuts comic strips. I had been wanting to decorate my bike for a long time and finally gave into doing so the week after I graduated from college (weird thing for a recent grad to do, I know...). I just felt like I "had" to decorate my bike or else I felt like I'd be denying myself creatively or something.

I may not know what it is that I want to do with my passion for creativity, but I do know that I feel more like myself when I am given the freedom to be creative than I do at any other time. I'm not even limited my use of the term "creativity" to the world of art. Given any situation where there is freedom to brainstorm and consider the possibilities in a creative way, I flourish and truly enjoy myself!

Today I overheard some of my co-workers at my internship talking about seeing something creatively. One co-worker asked the other about what she thought about something (sorry that's so vague, but I was overhearing the conversation and don't know what it was that they were talking about) and the other co-worker said, "I don't know... I don't have that creative eye." It was then that I had one of those realizations that hit home that are based on things that are heard time and time again: that we are all gifted differently. We're all gifted differently. Something that I can remember thinking as far back as elementary school when I envied Lauren for getting 100% on her Word Masters test (we all know that she has a gift with words... just read her blog!) or middle school when I first learned that Sarah could play the cello... something that I can definitely not do! For whatever reason, hearing my co-worker say this made me feel empowered. I have a gift and a passion: creativity. How could I not use it? Choosing to not use it would only deny myself and the world. It would be like Spiderman choosing not to use his Spidey Senses or Cher choosing not to use her hair-flipping abilities!

Heres to following your passion!