Growing up, I always had a wild imagination; twigs would become fishing poles, boxes would morph into spaceships, and grass could become lava. I would sit and draw for hours at a time and write stories just for fun. All of that sounds normal for a young child, but even as I have grown, I still see myself looking at things in different perspectives. I can look at a circle and begin to see more than a circle; images will start forming in my head while colors mix to make a whole picture. My mind also won’t allow my thoughts to be tidied up and put into neat piles; instead my ideas, dreams, observations, and all manner of things run wild in my head. Thinking logically comes easily to me, but in some situations my logic gets tossed aside and my creativity takes hold. I am forever questioning everything around me and craving adventure, and as much as I love people, socializing takes an immense amount of energy out of me. I also have to stick to a strict routine, so that I don’t feel anxious and lost. I have been told my whole life that my creativity and wild imagination are both gifts, that they are special. I excelled in not only art, but also writing all through school, even up until now. However, it still has been a challenge for me to view my creativity as a positive thing. At times, it seems like it is just a nuisance since it causes me to over-analyze everything from the books I read, to my professors’ lectures, even my own work. I constantly ask myself if this is really a gift or just a thorn in my side.
The struggle to accept who I am actually drove me to look up some information and write this article. What I found surprised me, but it also answered all of my questions. Research has shown that creativity and abstract ways of thought cause creative individuals to do some things differently than their peers. They tend to have higher amounts of physical energy, have both the characteristics of an introvert and an extrovert, combine discipline and responsibility, and escape gender role stereotyping (Csikszentmihalyi). I never understood why I had such a random combination of traits, but once I read that information it made sense. I also found out that we tend to be some of the most resilient people, able to bounce back quickly from bad situations, using our experiences as fuel for our work. We are complex individuals who can be hard to understand; we can barely understand ourselves half of the time, but we eventually figure stuff out. Maybe being creative is not such a bad thing. Maybe it is a gift that can push us through life and help us succeed. To all of the other creative folks out there: I hope you read this and see that your creativity is something that is worth being thankful for.
Works Cited
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. "The Creative Personality." Psychology Today. N.p., 1 July 1996. Web.
