I appreciate college. I appreciate the experiences I had there, I appreciate the classes I took, I appreciate the professors I was lucky enough to learn from. I appreciate the fact that college significantly improved my ability to take a critical look at the world around me. That being said, I think college also took a big chunk out of my creative drive, and I appreciate how crippling that could be for me. I've always loved writing, and I've barely written anything since I graduated, despite the fact that I have much more free time now than I did at school. I say I want to be a writer in the future, but fully-written books don't just pop out of the ground and scream "Publish me, I'm done!"
So, my 2014 New Year's Resolution is this: every day, I want to spend time creating something. I want to put aside an hour (since I'm lucky enough to have a job where that's possible) and apply my brain to some sort of creative problem. Whether it's a piece of writing, a piece of revision, a sketch, a doodle, a poem, a dance, a character profile, a song...anything. Anything that forces my brain to expand a little bit. Something about college turned a switch inside me, oriented me towards critical thinking and away from creative thinking, and I need to turn it back.
It's no secret that our modern world doesn't have a lot of space for the arts. Ask anyone who majored in something non-science/math/business related in college. It's hard to find a job, and any job you do find isn't going to make you much money--no matter how far up the ladder you climb. That being said, I doubt I'd ever be satisfied with a 9 to 5 corporate business job, and the number one way I can make sure that doesn't happen is to nourish my ticket out: creativity.
Without further ado, I present to you my first act of creation; a probably terrible and grammatically problematic haiku, written to see if I could! It follows the theme of rebirth and positive internal change. Granted, it's still the middle of winter and it's unlikely that any buds will be flowering anytime soon, but hey at least it's not snowing today.
So, my 2014 New Year's Resolution is this: every day, I want to spend time creating something. I want to put aside an hour (since I'm lucky enough to have a job where that's possible) and apply my brain to some sort of creative problem. Whether it's a piece of writing, a piece of revision, a sketch, a doodle, a poem, a dance, a character profile, a song...anything. Anything that forces my brain to expand a little bit. Something about college turned a switch inside me, oriented me towards critical thinking and away from creative thinking, and I need to turn it back.
It's no secret that our modern world doesn't have a lot of space for the arts. Ask anyone who majored in something non-science/math/business related in college. It's hard to find a job, and any job you do find isn't going to make you much money--no matter how far up the ladder you climb. That being said, I doubt I'd ever be satisfied with a 9 to 5 corporate business job, and the number one way I can make sure that doesn't happen is to nourish my ticket out: creativity.
Without further ado, I present to you my first act of creation; a probably terrible and grammatically problematic haiku, written to see if I could! It follows the theme of rebirth and positive internal change. Granted, it's still the middle of winter and it's unlikely that any buds will be flowering anytime soon, but hey at least it's not snowing today.
雪がやむ 外も心に 芽が咲いた | The snow stops outside and in my heart a bud has flowered. |
I also want to make sure that I surround myself with creative things from other people, so here's my favorite Japanese poem (not technically a haiku--it's the predecessor to the haiku, a rhyme format of 5-7-5-7-7). It's written by Ono no Komachi, a famous female Japanese poet from the mid ninth century. Yes, ninth.
わびぬれば 身をうき草の ねをたへて さそふみづあらば いなんとぞ思ふ | I have sunk to the bottom and like the rootless shifting water weeds should the currents summon me I too would drift away |