The Creative Outlook

     I am trying to get organized to lead a writing workshop where I work. The one thing that I want people to learn from their experience in this group, is that bravery pays. Creative classes expose us in ways very few things do. You make something and you show the world, "this is what I did." You are prepared for the world to laugh and scoff, but you know it's yours and you need to own it. I don't think that it matters if what you created is amazing, ordinary, or even not so great. You have made a you outside of you and that is an accomplishment to be proud of. One of my favorite classes last year was a non-fiction writing class. You write your life on a page and you hand it to someone else that you barely know and you say "this is who I am." The reader's job is always judgment. Did the author expose enough? Did you have an opportunity to empathize? Did you want more? It sounds horrible but it can be the most freeing thing there is. When you write the words on a page it can be easier for the writer to understand who they are. When you hear what others think about that person on the page they are rarely as cruel as one might think. I think it is because it's easy to pick apart the three-dimensional being, but it is much more difficult when we show the many dimensions of our world. When we lay our lives open on paper we show the chinks in the armor. We are saying that this place is where my heart lies. That admission makes that spot less vulnerable because we created the armor while we were writing the words on the page, but also by showing our weakness we are inviting kindness and compassion.
    I don't miss grabbing fast food as I ran to get to class after work. I don't miss watching tv guiltily because I know that I should be doing homework. I enjoyed returning to school, but I am glad to focus myself on the world outside of the classroom. I look for ways to learn every day, but I think I might occasionally need that thrill of self-exposure. That thought of "This is me, is it okay?" It is strengthening and affirming. You should try it.