Excuse My Creativity

Hi everyone!

This is going to be a weird post, but it's something that I've been thinking about a lot while secretly working on the Fangirl posts. It has to do with something that is encouraged in elementary school, disregarded in middle school, and makes you a laughing stock in high school. It's the one thing that employers are said to love, yet adults think is a joke. It's something that can change a person's life, yet if you dare participate in it, you're made fun of by your peers.

But whoa. Wait. I'm getting ahead of myself--I should at least tell you what it is, shouldn't I?

First, though, a short anecdote.

About a week ago, one of our church friends (he's 18), landed himself in the hospital because his appendix was on the verge of exploding inside of him. Luckily, they caught it before any damage could be made, so he recovered pretty well (as of now, he's happily being busy about his day). But the day after his surgery, our church took a trip to go visit him. It was, like, eight in the morning and had that been me in that room being visited by ten people at eight in the morning I would have killed someone. But he smiled and welcomed us.

Okay, enough about him, this has to do with me 'cause I'm selfish. Well, more of an emotion that I hope this encases.

So, we were standing around making jokes and my sister and her friends grabbed the long list of DVD's you can watch on request. They were reading off titles, and we were laughing at some of the stranger ones, when my sister says: "Oh hey, I wonder if My Little Pony is on here."

She begins looking and they all start joking. Then she asked, "Would it be under My Little Pony?" she rolled her eyes and laughed.

But, being the proud Brony I am, I bluntly stated, "Well, actually, it might be under MLP Friendship is Magic, because the series is titled--"

And then my pastor interrupted me, "Oh Jenn, we're doing this for fun while you're doing this seriously."

And the shame, disregard, and embarrassment that ensued was insane. I felt horrible. I felt like curling up into a ball and dying. Because, well, something that I love had been mocked, but not just that--me, too.

Why is this such a big deal? Well, in the Brony universe, this is actually is a very common thing, and that wasn't the worst that had ever happened. (I've been called some horrible things for being a Brony) But the reason why I wanted to share that with you all is not just because that is recent, but because it has a huge something to do with what I wanted to talk about:

Creativity.

Why are shows like My Little Pony so important? Because it gives kids the ideas to get creative. To go on an adventure with Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. To take care of animals with Fluttershy. To make a dress with Rarity. To laugh and joke and learn how important it is to smile with Pinkie Pie, but learn the importance of hard work with Apple Jack. But most of all, it can teach you how important it is work on friendships.

Even if you're not a Brony, there's so much that you can do being creative that can land you in hot water.  Write a blog? Well, blogging is for losers. Writing a book? Good luck with that, writing's for try-hards and nerds. Live-action-role-playing? Wow, that's for losers with no life. Renaissance Faires? It's called 1-800-get-a-life.

I can go on.

But as I mentioned before--when you're young, people encourage it. People want to see you living it up, using your brain to escape the world. But when you're in high school, it suddenly stops. Pretending, imaging, using your brains for something other than serious social stuff--it's all frowned upon. Being apart of a fandom that no one understands doesn't just make you weird, it also can make you the lowest on the social ladder.

And why does this stop? What on earth is so important that we are discouraged to live our lives without a bit of imagination? Why do teachers even discourage it?

Honestly, we're in such a hurry to grow up that we even bite the heads off of those that don't want to. And even those that "don't want to"--do they really detest growing up, or have they found a safe way of coping? If being creative don't hinder how you interact with people or how you take care of your life and those around you--and instead is something you do on the side--then why is it so bad?

And to those who say it's an unrealistic coping skill, is it really? What's a good coping skill? Talking, counseling, playing sports--things that usually include other people and are physical. So if you're handicapped or have a broken bone or something, sorry, no coping for you! Suffer!

Please, consider. If the world embraced creativity as a whole, wouldn't we just be better off? No, the world doesn't need starving artists all over. But the world also doesn't need people who detest the idea that the unknown isn't at all factual. I speak on behalf of all the dragons and unicorns in the world when I say this: Just because you haven't seen them, doesn't mean they don't exist.

One example I'll leave you with.

Sailor's tales used to say that a giant beast with long tentacles and a wide, glaring eye and sharp, vicious teeth would hunt those who dared to venture into the sea. This beast was known as the Kracken. After a few years, scientists disregarded this completely.

Now, though, they have found a squid that lived up to the "large" side of the sailor's tales--and they believe that bigger is out there. Even though the tall tale was really tall, it still had more fact behind it than scientists could ever believe. And the people that believed in such a beast even before the live footage was made were those that did imagine.

So, don't knock those that happen to embrace the stranger part of life. Not before you're totally aware.

Cheers!
Jenn