Coming of Age: Becoming Creative

“Walls turned sideways are bridges.”–Angela Davis

Openness, curiosity and, yes, change spark creativity. Sometimes, change arrives because of something we’ve set out to do. Often, though, it approaches us sideways like a sudden flash of light, and, suddenly, we’re thrown into cold water. Transitions like coming of age experiences drop us like a stone into the swirling eddy of our lives. They are wild places where we are challenged, left naked and afraid. At least a rise in blood pressure. We can either sink or use our arms and legs to reach a farther shore. Becoming creative helps us navigate. Here’s my story.

The long summer

I was almost twelve at the time, holding on like Velcro to parts of my childhood. Still enjoying youth’s unlimited creativity and joyful exploration. I loved pretending to be a soldier with the chop-chop rhythm of marching or, when I felt like it, a ballerina reaching out long arms to make wide arcs in the blue sky. Most of all, the predictability of every day was reassuring, a feeling of safety and, if I turned my attention, bread crumbs leading the way.

But that summer I sensed something changing. The earth was moving beneath and I was standing on a chasm widening more each—cracking open. Ringing in my ears whispering—jump.

The transformation

Sometimes, change just sneaks up, and when we look around, there it is, waiting like some unexpected guest on our doorsteps. When I saw the two-toned green ’54 Chevy 4-door sedan parked in our driveway, I didn’t know a thrilling life would soon gather around me, introducing me to a new world as exciting as wearing a fancy skirt with a ruffle. My sister had gotten her learner’s permit to drive to school, and I was able to tag along and be a voyeur in a social frontier that had not been charted, not even dreamt possible.

“Firsts,” the openings

To me, our “green hornet” represented more than transportation. It was packed with “firsts”–freedom, self-discovery and wide-open eyes. We no longer had to ride the bus with screaming eight-year-olds. Just the two of us gliding along the long open road where everything shimmered like the ice crystals of a newly frozen river.

The old world was slipping away, and, without looking back, I kissed childhood goodbye forever. My raft was inflating and I jumped aboard.—Becky Breed

Creative/writing exercise:

1. Coming of age experiences or other major challenges happen throughout our lives and are packed with opportunities in becoming creative. Consider the time you left home starting college or a new job, moved across the country, confronted a health concern, and for some, just surviving. Read Mother to Son by Langston Hughes. How did you adapt, change/transform, innovate, encounter–endure?
2. In change there is grief/joy, loss/gain, old ideas/ learning. Relationships are challenged/ transformed. Starting with your childhood to present day reflect upon milestones in your life where there were bumps in the road and you had to react.
3. Choose your creative expression whether it be writing, painting, creating a montage or sculpture and ask yourself these questions: a) what was left behind; b) changes necessary to adapt; and c) new openings. How did you navigate by becoming creative?
4. Create. Let your hands speak your heart.

For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.

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