Being a creator

I am a creator

It is a statement that I take great pride in. Being a creator is both a dream and a reality for someone like me. I have not always deemed myself as worthy enough of having the title, but today I do. I am a creator. And here is my story.

For as long as I can remember, I have felt a special kind of thrill whenever I was given the chance to be creative. Even as a little kid I relished the chances where I got to create something out of nothing. Whether it was drawing in art class or engineering a new invention with tape, glue and whatever other supplies I had, I loved to create. I did not want to be confined to just one medium of expression, so I tried my hand at as many means as I could. My imagination was (and still is) big, and I wanted to bring it all to life.

From the beginning I was always thinking outside of the box, something at the time that I didn’t even realize I was doing. My mind worked in the special way that it worked, and I just went with it. What people saw one way, I saw in the other. And this led me to creativity and how to best express mine. So I began to experiment to find out how to do just that.

Like many kids, I grew up with a big imagination. I loved reading and hearing stories that me to a world much different than my own. I wanted to create my own extraordinary worlds for others to get lost in, and so I began to write. Of course, my first original stories (which I began writing in elementary school) were not favorites to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but they did give me my first real chance to create something from my mind. In many ways my stories were allegories for my own life, and each one got a little piece of me to own. Writing became an escape from some of the painful aspects of my reality. It was through an ink pen and bound journal that I felt heard. I still do today.

Even though writing continues to be a major outlet for my creativity, I have also learned to express it through photography. Looking back I always held some level of interest in the classic art form, but never really go the chance to try my hand at it until I reached college. It was something I tried on a whim: I saw a simple point-and-shoot camera and bought it. I took it on a mission trip, began shooting, and the rest is history.

I’ve always seen myself as a real observer of the world around me, taking in as much detail as I can. Becoming acquainted with photography, I found that I could perfectly record my observations. I could find the perfect angles, shoot my favorite subjects, and edit the world around me through a camera. As my skills grew and my equipment got better (and more expensive), I was able to do more with this creative endeavor. Photography brought me more out of my shell while allowing me the chance to be in the background. The pictures I take are a reflection of my soul for the rest of the world to see.

I see writing and photography as my two creative outlets that have been most successful in my life. But there have been a few other ways that I have contributed as a creator, though not as well. One of these has been through music. I’ve played a couple different instruments in my life, and found them to be another form of expression for my internal feelings. Though I did not become as passionate about music as I am for my writing and photography, to this day it is still an occasional outlet that I turn to. Sometimes all it takes are a few strums of a ukulele or guitar to remind me that I am alive.

I’ve also experimented with other artistic expressions like drawing and painting. when I was younger I actually dreamed of becoming a drawer, but a bitchy art teacher during my freshman year of high school derailed those dreams. However, I still expressed myself through painting and found that it helped me with my anxiety too. Mixing up colors and creating my own pictures from my mind helped me make sense of my many thoughts. You don’t necessarily have to be great at something to enjoy it. All you have to do is try.

So yes, I consider myself a creator. I may not be the most successful or famous, but that doesn’t matter. I create and share it with the world, and even if one person sees it, then that is enough. Being a creator gives me a purpose that I can’t find anywhere else. Without creativity I wouldn’t be the same person that I am today. By being a creator I strive to make a difference, and that difference is to help others. My creativity is not just for me. It is for the world.

And I hope to change it.