Course Reflection

 Throughout this course, I have learned a lot. I have learned what it’s like to interact with other people and interpret creative pieces in my own way. I learned that not everyone has the same creative ideas, but that’s a good thing. We can’t all be exactly the same. I’ve begun to understand that creativity is sometimes a difficult place to reach, no matter what it’s being used for, but the minute a good idea strikes, I just can’t seem to stop working. I’ve especially begun to realize that I do, in fact, have a specific creative style. I always try to make a connection back to something that I love or that I had growing up. It takes a lot of hard work to complete a project, though. I always love coming up with these really elaborate ideas, but I never think about how much time I have to complete them first. I pretty much tell myself “wow I could totally build a rocketship in 3 class periods and a weekend, no biggie” and then I end up working super late a couple of nights, but it’s all worth it when I finish. As long as I get hyper-focused on my work at some point or another (before the due date of course), I know I can get my work done because I always pick a topic that I am truly interested in. Another important thing that I learned during this course is that I have to give other people a chance to contribute to group projects. I usually like to take control when I have an important assignment, or even on sports teams and things like that. I just find it easier to make a plan and tell the other people “okay, let’s do this” just so that we start out with an initial plan, but I’ve had to take a step back a couple of times and let other people decide. It’s become clear that the more I step back, the more the others in the group will feel comfortable stepping in, so I’m trying to make myself understand that I don’t always have to be in charge. I’d say the most challenging thing for me was critiquing other people’s work. I never like to be the person that’s like ‘I really like how you incorporated … into your piece, but, I don’t understand ...” I just feel funny telling someone that I can’t comprehend something in their project, because I never know how long it took them or if there was a really important reason they did something. I always try to interpret their projects in my own way, so I never really feel the need to say I don’t know why they did or didn’t do something. I believe that through this course, I have grown as a creative person. I’ve learned that it’s okay not to color inside the lines, it’s your decision whether you want to or not. I remember the lego activity and how I was just incapable of wrapping my mind around the idea that you could create something interesting and creative out of legos. Like actual real-life legos. Like the little bricks your brother leaves everywhere on the floor until you step on them and get really angry that I tiny piece of plastic can hurt your foot that much. Yeah, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to building anything with those, but I still figured out a way to come up with something new. And for my final project, it was surprisingly a little bit difficult. I almost never have any issues with writing songs, but these past couple of weeks were kind of rough. I had zero good ideas. I couldn’t even come up with a melody, so forget about the lyrics. I learned that ideas come when you least expect them to. It’s not when you’re sitting at your keyboard for hours trying to come up with an interesting chord progression. It’s not when you take a walk and sit at a park by yourself, listening to the birds’ chirp, hoping they will magically give you a perfect melody. It’s in the middle of the night when you’re barely awake but you can’t get that one line out of your head. It’s the second you step into a shower and hope you can still remember your idea by the time you get out. It’s the time when you forget your phone and go out for the day. It’s when you don’t want them to, but that’s the magic of it all because you know that if you do remember the piece of the song, it really was unique and you have a starting line for an amazing song. What I learned about myself as a student is that there are always going to be due dates. That’s not usually the case when you are just writing a song for fun. I’ve had to reteach myself that this year for all of my classes because if I ever get super stressed out about work, I just shut down and push everything off until the last possible second. I would not suggest this method. It is awfully terrible and I can’t stress enough how bad it is for your mental and emotional well-being. For me, on the other hand, I have been doing this since about the 3rd grade so I am very well used to it, however, I do not enjoy doing this, so I am trying to reteach myself how to be a better student. I just get so distracted sometimes, and I know that about myself. I hate remote learning so much because I know that everyone is angry and no one likes to speak up. I just stay on my phone all day for no reason. It’s so boring, but I don’t have the ability to walk to my classes and get that little break for fresh air. I don’t get to see my friends as more than a one-inch square on a screen, and my eyes get very tired of being on zooms all day. Just this morning, I woke up with cramps in my legs because I haven’t really gotten to move from this specific spot on this chair in 3 days. It’s hard. It’s really, really hard, but I am trying to learn self-control and I’ve been forcing myself to take a walk every once in a while. Anyways, I have had an amazing time in this class learning about creativity and about my and other peoples’ interests. In the future, what I am going to take away from this class is that 1.) I don’t always have to be a leader, I can let other people step in; 2.) I can take a leap of faith every once in a while and come up with a completely different idea than I’ve been used to; 3.) I can try to plan ahead on projects or assignments so I know how much time I am going to need to focus; 4.) I can take a break from electronics and get rid of my distractions so I can focus better; 5.) I can use my creativity in all aspects of my life and enjoy the gifts I have.