Turning Creative Gears

Who knew that an old lady around 5’2 who was so skinny she looked like she could be blown away with a strong gust of wind, was going to be my saving grace. Mrs. Sue Collins is a genius teacher who helps students prepare for standardized testing and also helps with college applications. All of her students were known to top in standardized testing and gain admission into the most prestigious and highest ranking schools. Mrs. Collins may not be a magician, but she sure could work wonders. I was just one of Mrs. Collins' many students. She had worked with me to help me gain entrance into a gifted and talented middle school, and also helped me prepare for my SATs, so my parents and I felt like she would be the best option to help me with the college application process. Mrs. Collins was among those who recognized my ability to write from an early age. She had an eye for talent, and apparently she saw something in me which I wasn’t sure I knew how to properly use. Mrs. Collins told me that since the first time she worked with me in middle school she recognized and loved how easily my writing would flow. Even if I wasn’t the best storyteller in the land, she said I definitely knew how to put my words clearly and concisely onto paper. Mrs. Collins agreed to help me and gave me my first task before we even met. She told me to come to her with what would be the first draft of my Common Application essay. From the first meeting we had about college essays you could see the way her eyes sparkled. She was so excited to see what I would come up with. So, when I walked in that first day with my essay safely secured in a google doc, typed in “Times New Roman” font size 12, hitting every point the prompt gave me, I expected her to love what I wrote, but this is far from what actually happened.

“Wow”, Mrs. Collins looked up from my paper with a look I couldn’t say I had ever seen before. “This has to be my least favorite of your works”

This was not the reaction I had planned for. I thought I had checked every box and she said that was exactly my issue.

“This essay has everything it needs to in terms of flow. It even has the right structure, but it's missing the personality. It lacks relatability. Your writing is perfect for a school assignment, but for an application essay it needs to stand out and show the real you.”

I had a look of shock on my face. I flashed back to freshman year and how I felt when I first realized my writing was going to have to change. How was I going to do this if my creative gears were rusted?

She began to read the prompt out loud, “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, please share your story. I know that you have a story to tell. But what you need to do is sit down and close your eyes and reflect on your past experiences. What is it that makes you...you?”

I closed my eyes and for once I had no idea what I was going to write about. I was so used to being given specific questions and boring prompts that my mind went blank. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had to write about myself for a school assignment. I took a deep breath and reflected as Mrs. Collins spoke.

“Think of things which are important to you. People who matter. Things they have taught you. Lessons you have grown up with.”

I felt my brain quiet. I wasn't sure what she triggered, but it worked. I immediately thought of my family and the many things that they taught me while I was growing up which centered around service. It was like Mrs. Collins had hit the rewind button in my head. Memories I had completely forgotten about came flooding back to me. I thought of how my mom and I spent every Monday morning at the St. Martin of Tours food pantry packaging meals for distribution to the underserved population. I remembered how I would go to the hospital after school three times a week for four hours to volunteer in the Woman and Infants Center to ease the process of delivering babies. I even remembered restocking the car with gift cards to restaurants so that anytime we would stop at lights and see people who were asking for money, we would have something to give them.

I opened my eyes and began typing, “My Hindu family follows the principles of the Law of Attraction, the idea that positive thoughts and actions work like magnets to attract positive life experiences. Growing up, I was taught to value this knowledge and practice Seva (selfless service), a key component of Hinduism. My parents cultivated my drive to serve others, and my experiences taught valuable lessons and nurtured values that would help my community. In the summer, my mother and I volunteered at the St. Martin of Tours food pantry to distribute food packages to underserved populations. Observing the various backgrounds of families and individuals who came to collect food opened my eyes to the extent of those in need. On numerous occasions, people would request extra meat and canned veggies to feed their families. It is through such experiences that I began to understand the pain of not being able to provide for loved ones and became fueled as a volunteer to help those in need.”

“Something tells me this one is going to be much better”, Mrs. Collins said as she peered over my shoulder with a bright smile plastered across her face.

For as long as I can remember, reading and writing always came easy to me. I never struggled to formulate my thoughts and to transfer them onto paper. That was until I came to high school and found myself facing the wrath of strict rubrics. I used to write all the time for my own pleasure, but the more my writing was restricted in school, the less I was able to feel connected with what I was writing. In my experience, school always stressed the importance of learning things which do not require a creative brain. I never felt like I was taught important life skills that could help increase my creativity such as taking time to self-reflect or doing exercises centered around thinking outside the box. In fact,”[schools] now run educational systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that [schools] are educating people out of their creative capabilities” (Robinson). Writing college essays meant I needed to be able to tap into my memories and write about them in ways which make them easy to understand and relate to, but effective in relation to showing my growth as a student and even as a person. I couldn’t even name the last time I was required to write an essay on personal growth or a reflective assignment about something other than a passage from the 1800’s.

For so long I was so scared to be wrong, I no longer knew how I would take my essay outside the box. However, as strange as it sounds, I loved writing about my life and reflecting on past experiences and I was reminded of that feeling when Mrs. Collins asked me to reapproach my essay. She showed me the importance of having someone who cultivates my creative brain and forces me to think in ways which aren’t practiced daily. She helped me remember the reason I fell in love with writing in the first place and how it was an outlet for me to look back on my life and process it. For the first time in a long time I felt like I was enjoying what I was writing and that I had the freedom to take my essay in any direction I wanted. No harsh teachers with strange writing expectations. No rubrics. Just me and my essay. Mrs. Collins sat patiently and watched as my creative gears began to turn once again.

Works Cited

Robinson, Sir Ken, director. Do Schools Kill Creativity? TED, TED Conferences, Feb. 2006,

www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?utm_campaign=tedspread&

utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare.