monty says...
john cleese said in on becoming a leader, "the essence of creativity is not the possession of some special talent, it is much more the ability to play."
i remember one time in fourth grade, during arts period, the teacher gave us a piece of paper and told us to draw. "draw anything," she said.
so i started drawing, with nothing in mind. just draw. i ended up with this weird ass red cross on a space ship floating in black space.
i think at that time i was pretty ashamed of it because it didn't look like anything. not a flower, not an apple, not a pretty little two-storey house with a garden.
so when the teacher came by, i hesitantly showed her my drawing. "it's not very good. i'm not sure what it is exactly."
her reply? i can't remember exactly, but it was basically something along the lines of, "it's really creative. good job."
i don't know to what degree that affected me and turned me into the person i am today. but reflecting back, i'm pretty grateful that she didn't tell me how horrible my drawing was.
somehow, the past two decades has turned me into someone who is not really creative. academia in the united states doesn't allow one to be creative. well, rarely.
it's hard to do so when you're a history major in college. everything i learned and was tested on was based on facts. though i have to admit that i did take some creative liberties during my southeast asian history finals when i said that pol pot was captured and executed during the 1970's. a few days after my final, i learned that he was captured by the khmer rouge.
in my contemporary japanese culture class, one of the options for the final was to draw a manga on the significance of manga in japanese culture. i jumped at the chance and did a 8 page manga on the topic. it was great. i was able to name drop the smiths and morrissey on the t-shirts my main characters were wearing.
more recently... well more like three years ago, deidra got me to participate in a easter egg tree project for joshua, one of our friends' son. i have to say it was very fun, and deidra was surprised that i was so creative.
anyway, it's really a shame that we are not allowed to show and use our creativity when we were in school and when we are at work. we are not allowed to make mistakes at our jobs. we are so afraid of failure that we become stagnant and stuck doing the same things at our jobs just to get by. follow the status quo.
but life isn't stagnant. you can't succeed without change. change is good. change is necessary. and if you've read who moved my cheese, you would understand.
i remember one time in fourth grade, during arts period, the teacher gave us a piece of paper and told us to draw. "draw anything," she said.
so i started drawing, with nothing in mind. just draw. i ended up with this weird ass red cross on a space ship floating in black space.
i think at that time i was pretty ashamed of it because it didn't look like anything. not a flower, not an apple, not a pretty little two-storey house with a garden.
so when the teacher came by, i hesitantly showed her my drawing. "it's not very good. i'm not sure what it is exactly."
her reply? i can't remember exactly, but it was basically something along the lines of, "it's really creative. good job."
i don't know to what degree that affected me and turned me into the person i am today. but reflecting back, i'm pretty grateful that she didn't tell me how horrible my drawing was.
somehow, the past two decades has turned me into someone who is not really creative. academia in the united states doesn't allow one to be creative. well, rarely.
it's hard to do so when you're a history major in college. everything i learned and was tested on was based on facts. though i have to admit that i did take some creative liberties during my southeast asian history finals when i said that pol pot was captured and executed during the 1970's. a few days after my final, i learned that he was captured by the khmer rouge.
in my contemporary japanese culture class, one of the options for the final was to draw a manga on the significance of manga in japanese culture. i jumped at the chance and did a 8 page manga on the topic. it was great. i was able to name drop the smiths and morrissey on the t-shirts my main characters were wearing.
more recently... well more like three years ago, deidra got me to participate in a easter egg tree project for joshua, one of our friends' son. i have to say it was very fun, and deidra was surprised that i was so creative.
anyway, it's really a shame that we are not allowed to show and use our creativity when we were in school and when we are at work. we are not allowed to make mistakes at our jobs. we are so afraid of failure that we become stagnant and stuck doing the same things at our jobs just to get by. follow the status quo.
but life isn't stagnant. you can't succeed without change. change is good. change is necessary. and if you've read who moved my cheese, you would understand.
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