The International Student Blog

No matter what field of study you’re in, the one thing you’ll find in common among every engaged student is creativity. This makes perfect sense, as being passionate about something is one way creativity can happen. When a student is passionate about whatever they are learning, they naturally start investigating and thinking about it the way they want to, and not necessarily the way they’ve been told they need to- this is creativity. Any student that does more than the bare minimum amount of work assigned to them is doing so because they’ve activated the creative side of their brain. One of the hardest parts about college is finding a discipline that can consistently bring out your creative ability. One common misconception people have about creativity is that you can only be creative when you are making art, music, literature, theater, or something similar. However, anybody who feels passionate enough about what they’re doing is likely using their creative side. 

One of the biggest obstacles in tapping into your creative ability is distraction. Nowadays, life is full of all kinds of distractions, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s important to engage your mind as much as possible. Being stuck on your phone all day can give you a deluded view of life, making your creative thinking extremely limited. Seeing all of the amazing things that, as a kid, would’ve excited you being just a click away on social media can desensitize you to the wonders the world has to offer. The only thing that seems more interesting than what you find in a minute online is something totally unique. Often, you’ll find that putting your phone away, even for just an hour or two, can make the world around you much more vivid and meaningful. Observing the ways that little things engage you as you remove yourself from the thought patterns created by social media is a great way to inspire creativity. Creativity is not something that you need to obtain; it’s something that everyone has but just needs to allow time for.

There is no formula for tapping into creativity. There are many common ways to tap into your creativity, but they are all essentially doing the same thing. When people give strategies for tapping into creativity, they’re talking about things that generally have worked for them, and they’re not describing a rigid process. No one can tell you exactly how to do it, they can only tell you to allow yourself to be creative. It’s important to not get frustrated if other people’s strategies don’t work for you, but it’s also important to listen to and understand advice when people give it. The best you can get when it comes to creativity is advice. But advice will only work if it resonates with a part of your experience. The process itself is unique to you.

Everyone is different, so if the methods people talk about don’t work for you, that’s totally okay; it might actually be a good thing. Patience is the main key. Life is long, and moments of creativity make all the waiting worth it.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 19th, 2021 at 8:00 am and is filed under International Education, International Student, Study Abroad, Study in the USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.