This semester I added a class called, "Entrepreneurial Creativity," that's designed to help students harness their creativity and learn how to use it.
The class met up in the campus' Student Union theater and we got a chance to do improv. A guest speaker came and talked to us about improvisational comedy, but there’s more to that— he actually came to talk about communication.
According to him, the way we communicate is supposed to help us in our businesses and in our personal interactions in the real world. Our guest speaker discussed a list of traits that all humans have that we need to use more in our daily lives such as creativity, imagination, determination and more.
But the root of all character traits is willingness. One has to be willing to be a certain way. Our guest speaker demonstrated the use of these traits through a series of improv exercises. One of them was called "Repeat," in which two people participated. Each person had to repeat what the other said before coming up with a new line. The second— my favorite— was called "Foreign Film," where four people spoke a language through provided subtitles. None of us knew the languages so we had to speak gibberish and embody stereotypes. The last exercise we did was a storytelling exercise where five people were on stage, and each had to say one word at a time in order to write a story. This exercise was supposed to make us not plan ahead.
Before we left, he made us say one thing that really stuck with us after the improv class, and one of the things that I really got out of his presentation was something he said.
"Don't ever stop playing."
When we were little, we were told to play all the time. I'm pretty sure parents told their children this to get their kids off their backs, but playing is more than that. Play is self-expression. Play is trying to find your identity. We played for the first 18 years of our lives and all of a sudden, people tell us to stop playing and start growing up. Why? What sense does that make? It would be nice if people were not conditioned to always worry about what others thought of them.
I'm not saying that conformity is a bad thing, I'm just saying that it feels good to be without inhibitions once in a while.
Playing is cathartic. Playing feels good, or at least, I think so. I want to feel good for the rest of my life, which is why I will not stop playing. I will never stop playing.
Don't let anyone stop you from being who you are.
Don't. Ever. Stop. Playing.
