Capturing Creativity

Does creativity vanish as we age? Do adults fantasize as much as children do?

Since I was very young, I've been haunted by the fear of growing up. To me, growing up means responsibility, responsibility means consequences, and beyond that, is a hazy area of unpredictability.

I don't know if you guys were tested when you first enrolled for kindergarten or nursery school, but I did. And the task was simple. I was asked to draw a tree and its surroundings. When I submitted my drawing, the tester was disappointed because I colored the tree red. My mum couldn't believe that I was rejected to enter the school due to an unusual tree color. My mum then stood up and said, "Have you not been to foreign countries where leaves turn red? So is this the school that will teach my child to be creative?" After she threw out those words to her, the tester apologized and let me enter the school.

⊂二二二（　^＾ω^＾）二⊃

My elder sister (left) and I (right)

I even had a dream journal where I jot down my dreams every morning I wake up. I kept that journal for almost two years before I finally abandon it. Though I don't have  the journal today, but I still remember each and every single page I wrote years ago. My mum once told me that as I grow up, those dreams will slowly fade away. There will come the nights when I will sleep without picturing anything in my head. She believes that that day is the day I will not be as creative as I was as a child.

I have not been dreaming often since three months ago. And as my mum's words echo back in my head, I found this quote by one of my favorite Broadway singers, Sarah Brightman:

“As I get older, I become more imaginative, and feel like I have maybe a shorter time to get a lot of things going on in my mind done. 

I look at composers and conductors, anybody involved in music or writing or art in general, they got more done as they got older. 

If I can, I'll be one of those people because what I do is my passion.” 

- Sarah Brightman

I then realize that we can carry our creativity as we grow up, just in a different way. As we grow up, we have enough knowledge and experience to realize that those imaginations are more than just thoughts and impossible fantasies. They can be transformed into reality or any visible forms of art. Brightman's passion towards the theater and music world inspires me to believe that creativity remains until the end. But we have to hold on to the magic word: Passion. Do everything with passion, and your young, fresh mind will dwell within you till' the end.

Ride on the wind's back, and away we go!

Alice