Childhood & Creativity
Disclaimer: This post was originally written on 7 October 2018. Thoughts and feelings expressed may no longer be accurate“I think that as children we live in this dream state, and we have forgotten it in the same way.” - Stephen King
I agree with Mr. King, I believe that when it comes to people and our creativity that we have given it up to focus on reality. As a writer of creative pieces, I often spend most of my free time delving into worlds I get to make up. It is typically hard to come back to conversing with “normal” people afterwards because their imagination is limited to just what they know in this world. Instead of being able to sit down and talk with them about crazy stories we talk about politics or the events of our day and its dry, as if elements of the conversation are missing. But when I sit down in an empty field and close my eyes to imagine an epic battle ensuing around me, or when I talk to characters playing around in my head, I feel happier than when I’m planning out my future.
In my opinion, there can be a balance of adulthood and childhood within a person. Adults seem to think that as soon as a certain age is reached, life becomes only about responsibilities and all creativity is left behind. I disagree. If someone wishes to be an auditor and help people file their tax returns that’s okay, but if they want to do that during the day and then go home and write novels about slaying dragons, why should that be considered so childish? I think the ability to be both mature and young-minded shows a higher level of thinking that others sacrifice when they give up on their childhood mentality. I think it should be encouraged to look at life through the eyes of both a child and an adult.
I remember the first book I read that inspired me to be an author was Rick Riordan’s Sea of Monsters back in 2007. Even though he was well into his forties when the book was published, he wrote it for his sons, allowing himself to become more creative by looking at it through the eyes of a child.
I started writing my first book that same year. It was terrible because I wasn’t educated enough to write fluently, but the important part was that I was writing. A few years later, after I had read more books than my bookshelf could hold, I began my next novel. It was decent for being in fifth grade and I wrote over two hundred pages. The only reason I stopped was because my aunt and a few family friends were open with their opinions that writing was not a real occupation. I stopped writing for a few years because of that, but my childish mind was always running. Over the next three years my mind would come up with more than twenty different stories, at least a hundred characters would be born from my mind, but I would never be bold enough to tell anyone about it. Finally, just this past summer I wrote the first book in a trilogy I have been planning for the last four year. I have edited it numerous times and now I am openly sharing it. Even though I have decided to join the FBI, I have decided that I can’t give up on my childish mind.
I openly share that I am both a writer and an accounting major because I think having a balance of imagination and reason is amazing to have. Yes, I talk to characters I have made up; yes, I imagine what it would be like in my world; and yes, I think sometimes I act like an eight-year-old. I’m not ashamed that I think like a child and I think it’s wrong that our society has a cut-off date for childhood. Having a cut-off date for childhood is like having a cut-off date for vision. How dare we stifle someone’s vision?
