Creativity also known as imagination, inspiration, ingenuity, originality, inventiveness or cleverness is one of the virtues I most value in myself and others that displays it in their various works of art, literature, music, and other works that constitutes creativity. For me, being creative is the best that any person can be, no matter the nature of ones work.
My personal feelings about creative works especially those of literary nature, is out of this world. I marvel rather intensely on expertly written pieces of work as if I reap from them the pleasures of eating well cooked-mouth-watering food. Whenever time I pick up a vividly expressed written book or material, it inspires in me the desire to contribute my own bits of writing to the whole community of the literary world.
I remember when I was younger my aspiration had always been to do something creative in my life but I did not know what exactly I wanted to do until I picked a book called the Mending Season by an author whose name is Kagiso Lesego Molope, she intrigued me with her witty and cunning way of using words and for the first time in my whole life I knew what I wanted to express my creativity through, and it was writing.
As I write this piece about creativity, I had just read a book called Seven steps to heaven by Fred Khumalo who is one of the most recognised South African authors and a respectable journalist in the country, his genius use of words compelled me to write an article about creativity for I couldn't fully understand how some people can be so gifted in being expressive in their use of words and paint such vivid pictures for those who read their work with so much ease than others, then it dawned on me that indeed creativity is something to be marvelled at, appreciated and valued in all people that keeps the quality of being so intact and tapped into. I am now determined more than ever to produce my own creative work, because I know that I have it in me to be the great writer that I want to be, I just ought to have faith in myself and trust the creative genius in me while I put in necessary work and effort in my pursuit of writing. It has taken me long enough to know and understand that the creative genius I found in myself is actually in each one of us as human beings, we all just have to awaken ourselves to it and take necessary steps forward to reach our maximum potentials.
For me the necessary steps that I have undertaken was to actually read a book from the first page up until the last page with comprehension and special attention paid to the finer details. Just like Socrates had once said to his pupils 2 800 years ago at Athens present day Greece 'employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have laboured hard for’, I dedicate most of my leisure time to reading and improving myself with other men’s writings while also writing so that other people can improve their selves with my writings. I always advise people to read so that they can be better versions of themselves as I also became a better version of myself through reading and exuding the vast benefits I gain from reading. After a certain period of time that I dedicated to savouring words from books I was carried by a burning desire to put a pen onto a paper and express creatively my innermost thoughts for all to see.
I believe that all people are born creative but often grow to forget how to live up to their natural ability to create because most do not nurture their nature hence creative people are so hard to come by. Practice makes perfect, whatever one does on a daily basis it becomes their second nature and they excel at doing it, i.e. we create our own nature and we can be whatever we choose to be.
I am pleased and very proud to say that devoting myself and my time to learning and mastering the skill I find most intriguing in those I hold in great esteem which are writers and all others who are creative in their own respects has truly made a positive difference in my life. Even though I wasn’t always fond of neither reading nor writing the more I ventured deeply into the quest of finding my discipline of creativity, I found myself particularly drawn to the art of writing. I found it to be the most satisfying way of expressing ones thoughts and opinions while reaching out and connecting with people from various backgrounds in a most humanistic way possible.