SPARKS

     What comes to mind when you hear the word creativity? Thinking back on Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk on how the ancient Greeks and Romans personified creativity through the muses and daemons, I liken creativity to how they saw the human heart as a furnace and factory. Creativity is a spark that is always in search of how it can ignite a flame, and it's kindling can be a guitar, a pen and paper, a canvas and a brush, etc. And, much like a spark, the conditions it's surrounded by can light up a room or spread like wildfire. 

    Immersing myself and getting out of my comfort zone is how I put myself into those conditions. By getting too comfortable, I feel as though my spark or flame becomes too stagnant and eventually turns to smoldering embers that are still there, but are exhausted and have become too tame to move from one fire to the next. And that's how it's played out for me up until very recently. My spark needed more fuel or to have the winds carry it towards a new source of creativity.

    Throughout all of my years in grade school, I was heavily involved in performing arts, especially in playing music. And, albeit an immersive and wealthy environment to grow as a musician, I used all of my time to focus on it, and feel like I cheated myself out of opportunities to spread my spark into drawing or pottery-making. I took my music into college the first time around, and honestly felt, through making it my school work and not having a strong foundation through my instructors, the fire that I put so much into was being quenched and was gasping for air. I changed my major after only one semester and, although I grew in my experience, I didn't touch an instrument for quite some time. 

    But that's started to change, now that I'm striking my spark in this new setting at CU Denver. I'm feeling a whirlwind of emotions as I'm breaking a new trail in Digital Design at a new school, while also juggling work and my personal life. And it's invigorating. I'm anxious, but in the best way, like Ferdinand Magellan or Francis Drake embarking and enduring to discover something new. 

I'm feeling the heat from my creativity like an ancient fire, and I'm excited how bright it'll burn.