In this blog post, Lois shares how she accidentally rekindled her passion for creative endeavours during her work at the Innovation Hub and how this empowered her to dive into creative pursuits outside the university.
Written by Lois Lee, Blog Editor and Digital Content Writer, Master of Information, User Experience Design, and Archives & Records Management
Over the last few years as a student, I have always prioritized my academic responsibilities by dedicating most of my time to studying and completing assignments. I recently realized that I haven’t devoted as much time to creative endeavours, such as writing short stories and poetry, that I used to enjoy prior to university. However, when I joined the Innovation Hub team earlier this year, I was asked to work on tasks that required creativity. I was surprised that, in a professional workplace context, I was suddenly reconnecting with my creative side. I realized that my new exploration of creativity could be applied to other pursuits in my life; in particular, solving personal challenges and rekindling passions.
A Pivotal Moment
When I worked with the Community Animation team last summer, one of my favourite memories was writing and presenting a fictional roleplay mystery heist to build students’ facilitation skills. This was a memorable experience for me because the process of crafting the story gave me an opportunity to explore how fictional writing was applicable to a workplace setting.
Preparations for this event allowed me to dive into my imagination, challenge my storytelling abilities, and create an interesting framework for delivering presentations. As someone who has always been intimidated by presentations, I realized that these storytelling elements could be transferred to an academic setting. I discovered that storytelling could help me practice engaging modes of delivery and furthermore, reimagine presentation assignments as a fun, rather than scary, activity. This new connection to creativity became a strategy for me to gain confidence in oral presentations, which is something that I have always wanted to improve.
Shifting to New Pursuits
As I began to see how my storytelling skills could be translated from a professional to an academic setting, I became more comfortable showcasing my creativity in personal endeavours. I’ve been hesitant to indulge in creative writing for many years because I became so accustomed to academic expectations, even though it’s a personal passion that I’ve always wanted to develop.
However, after seeing how malleable my creativity could be, I regained confidence in my writing skills. I started establishing a long-term goal to diversify my writing capabilities and openly showcase that talent. This academic year, I started to seek out and contribute to other student publications. With my new efforts to stay engaged with student-run newspapers and magazines, I feel as though I started to embark on a new creative journey. As I continue to learn about journalism, practice writing poetry as a personal hobby, and seek out more opportunities, I strive to holistically honour my creativity in everything that I do.
Creativity as a Vehicle for Empowerment
When I re-engaged with my creativity in my work at the Innovation Hub, and then in other creative writing endeavours, I started to feel more confident and more empowered. It was almost as if this ignited creativity gave me an increased ability to overcome challenges in my life and reclaim parts of myself that I’d lost touch with. I’ve learned that, for me, creativity is a vehicle for empowerment, specifically in areas of my life where I have experienced limitations or predicted new challenges.
I would encourage readers to reflect on how we can make creativity flow into our lives. We might ask ourselves:
- How can I use creativity to solve challenges in my life?
- Is there a creative project or activity that I’ve been wanting to try, but have been putting off?
- Is there room for creative activities in unexpected places in my life, such as at school or work? What kind of circumstances open up opportunities for my creativity to shine through it?
Ultimately, new avenues for creativity can emerge in small doses and help us feel inspired in our daily activities. There is no specific formula for showcasing our creativity to the world. We all have to carve our own creative paths.
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