When you're a kid being creative is easy, you dream of make believe and fairy tails and express your feeling in art, but passing through college and becoming older seems to take a toll on your creativity.

I have always considered myself a creative person. I major in art and always try to find new ways to express my ideas, but some people aren't as lucky. I have met so many of my peers with troubling concerns of how to be creative and how to express themselves. Creativity isn't something you should ask each other about, you shouldn't take suggestions either, you should make something you are proud of even if it gets no attention from others.

I will not be the first to say creativity is important in everyday life, it teaches you to take risks, to make your self vulnerable, and to grow as a person. The root word even means "to grow". But the problems with life in academia is that instructors are becoming more strict on assignments and giving rubrics that evaluate how well the student has done something and not how the student did something. Creativity leads to innovation and success but what we learn now is how to do something perfectly to directions. Now I am not saying this is wrong but if your whole academic career you are told to follow directions, then how do you expect the student to join the workforce and exhibit new ideas? One of the number one qualities that companies are now looking for is creativity.

There are may ways to change this ongoing challenge students are facing. If not in the classroom then outside of that set aside time to find a creative passion. This could be photography, painting, writing, journaling, building models. Anything. As long as you use the creative part of your brain. But this next part is to the teachers and professors; students must be challenged, creatively, this could mean assigning a project that they are then allowed to make in any media form, or encouraging more discussion so students are allowed to bounce ideas off of one another.

Anything could help to encourage today's millennials to be creative and they must, or else when we begin working how will we ever know how to share our own ideas. Creativity is essential in everyone's lives, inspire each other.