An Exercise in Engagement

It is so very difficult to sustain interest in those things that are funny/interesting/cool long enough to say or think anything meaningful about them. I've decided to blog along with my class--if the purpose of this project is to capture in words one's ties to motivation and inspiration then wouldn't it be hollow if I weren't doing the same thing? I have high hopes for my students - and I know first hand how procrastination and a disaffected attitude are poisonous to the longevity of success.

What the heck am I talking about? In the handout "Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity" one stuck with me: "Beware of Turning Hobbies Into Jobs". This didn't sit quite right with me - I would love to do my hobby for a living, but I can't for the life of me imagine who would pay me to watch Judge Judy for 40 hours a week. Also, I watch enough Judge Judy now to know that sooner or later, I would get sick of her (I already argue back to her on the screen, which is quite embarrassing). However, there is one thing about which I am passionate that I would actually really love to turn into a career: writing. I have always kept journals, written little poems on postcards for my friends, and invented embarrassingly dramatic short stories and novellas throughout my youth. When I was a freshman in high school--fourteen and gawky as all hell--I wrote a screen play and forced all of my friends to be in. We put on a lunchtime production in the drama room and it mortifies me to remember the plot and characters - I was essentially playing Barbie with my friends, and the drama closely resembled an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 (which I was watching intensely at the time - oh, the 90s!).

Regardless of the embarrassment of "Strangers" (and yes, I had to Facebook an old friend in order to remember the name of that god-awful play), it is pretty amazing that I had the gumption to write an entire screen play at 14, and luckily I had some pretty amazing teachers along the way who encouraged me. I wrote and wrote - reams of poetry, short stories, editorials, and even an entire newsletter that culminated in my leading a protest against my high school administration for excess homework. And then I went to college and wrote more. I was published in a scholarly journal (yes, really) and was a consistent op-ed contributor in the Jack (Humboldt State University's campus newspaper).

Then, I finished college and all that momentum was lost. I managed a coffee shop, ran a non-profit program, and starting working at the Academy. But where was my writing? One day I woke up and realized I had not written anything in years. One of the "Keys to Creativity" is to start a blog. Can it be true that writing about the work that other artists are doing will exercise the creativity muscles of our own artistry? I hope do. So, as we embark on this journey of exploring the relationship between motivation and success, I challenge you, dear student. I also challenge myself. Let's blog and create and create and blog. Let's see if it gets us anywhere.