Why creative?

When I was in primary school, it has always been a tradition to have one ‘smartest student’, one ‘the most active’ , one ‘the  quietest’ and so on. In most cases teachers agreed on who is which ! It wasn’t until a teacher told me I was creative that I asked myself what is creativity? I still have a feeling that it’s relative. Some one can be more creative than another , but ” the most creative” ?? I don’t think it does exist anyway!

Creativity is a word that adds description to many things: a drawing can be creative, a song can be creative, a joke can be creative and a piece of writing can be creative. I have always believed in the power of creativity and most importantly in the power of developing creativity , similar to the model by Tina Seelig that we should always keep the innovation engine running.

What inspires a person to be creative ? Well, since we’re tackling the idea of initiatives of creativity, it is worth mentioning that I personally relate creativity with the “Why?” questions. I’ve always asked people -and asked myself as well -why ?? This is a question of curiosity and by taking this course I now can say that indeed curiosity is a positive attitude of creative thinking.

Music has played a major role in my life. When I was 7, I started taking piano classes and later when I was 13 I joined the guitar school at Cairo Opera House. The way I see it, is that music is an aspect affecting creativity. Each performer must be creative in the way he/she sends the music to touch the hearts of the audience. A person can be therefore creative in his/her own unique way.

I can see another connection between creativity and problems  before starting this course. A person usually developed his creativity by basically thinking of problems and hence finding solutions to those problems. This course has added a value of organizing the process of creative thinking rather than just learning how to be creative.

Being a mechanical engineering student and a music performer does enhance me to make a connection between both of my interests and I believe without the power of creativity this wouldn’t have happened.