Creative? Me? No Way.
Being creative or artistic means you cant paint and draw, right? That’s what I thought as a kid. I thought that because I wasn’t good at either of those things that I wasn’t creative, that I could never be an artist. I was a self-proclaimed logical, right-brain thinker. That is, until 2020, covid, and my start in homeschooling.
It was a mix of taking over my dad’s custom screenprinting company. I was good at the business part, but not the art part, but dang I wanted to be. I’d grown up with the business but, being the self-proclaimed right-brain thinker who believed she could never be an artist of any kind, I didn’t even try. Then I’m 30 years old, in this position, and I really wanted to grasp it. Then combine that with COVID shutting down schools, me beginning my homeschooling journey, creating curriculum and constantly doing projects with my kids, and planning our curriculum and our days, each day was like planning a party. I began realizing that art comes in MANY forms and I’d spent my life barely scratching the surface.
Then came the plants, my re-discovery of my love of botany, bouquets and dried flowers. Creation. Creative. I wasn’t drawing pictures and painting, but I was creating something and I wanted it to be magical, every single day.
I think as kids, at least back in the “get a degree, a good job, retire, live happily ever after” - era, before we realized there is no job you can work til retirement anymore, we are taught this is what success looks like, this is how you properly do x, y and z and if it’s outside of these bounds at all then you get a bad grade, subliminally taught to not do it that way again because it’s “wrong” so you may never even attempt it again. Creativity gets sucked from us at an early age because, let’s face it, if you’re not college-level or career-good at something then why bother doing it, right? (sarcasm!) I couldn’t draw then why create? I hated science but loved agriculture, so I was told I’d hate going to school and making a career of it so I didn’t. Why try then? (again, sarcasm!)
My 30s have been the most freeing time for me because I really care very little what other people think of me. So regardless of your age, I just want to pass this message along to you: YOU ARE CREATIVE! Creativity is defined as: the ability to create. Synonyms include cleverness, imagination, ingeniousness, ingenuity…
Here I thought to be creative my hands had to be good, but creativity is your mind. It all begins with the mind!
Think differently, think big, think beyond. Try all the things, like them or dislike them, try the things you like again, even if you’re not good at it!