One way I try to cultivate my creativity is by setting a goal to take a photo a day. Usually, it’s on my walk home from class when I see something beautiful and want to remember it. I don’t use a camera, just my phone. It’s a relatively simple goal too so it makes me feel accomplished when I complete it every day. This helps me be more present and look around. I am more in the moment and able to see the smaller details around me. Also, it helps me appreciate my world more by stopping and soaking it in.

Sometimes, I send them to my parents back home. I don’t go home very much and my parents don’t visit me a lot so this is a good way to show them the parts of my world that I enjoy. By taking one a day, I can share my highlight with them and they can see through my eyes for a second. They don’t even have to be great or amazing, just something I like to look at.

Photos-vyulcx

-Kendall Prime

I really love comedy TV shows. This past week, I was looking for a new binge-watch and came across Veep, staring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I have watched a season and a half at this point and at least one time per episode I laugh out loud. I think it is so hilarious and really brings out my creativity. When I watch, I think of other funny moments and it sparks imagation. The scripts are so well written and clever, so poignant and creative. I highly recommend this show if you ever need a laugh or just a show to watch. Recently, Dreyfus was diagnosed with breast cancer. She defeated this terrible disease and the show is coming back for a final season. I love that she will come back for a final season and prove she is a true fighter. Through her creative outlet of comedy, Dreyfus will overcome any obstacle and prove that laughter is the best medicine. -Josh Felgoise

I recently saw the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, which is about the story of Freddy Mercury and the band “Queen.” The movie shows all of the different stages of Mercury’s life and how Queen became the star group that it was. (Some spoilers…) Freddy Mercury was a man who had such an incredible voice and sometimes people would not give him a chance to share that because of the way he looked. He had extra teeth in his mouth, which made them stick out of his lips. But they did more than stick out of his lips, they made him stick out to any other singer. When a group lost their lead singer, Freddy approached them and they took him in because of his amazing talent. As time went on with the group, they found he had more than just an amazing voice. His ability to create music was beyond anyone’s imagination. The most creative part of the group was when they decided to record the song “Bohemian Rhapsody.” This was going to be an “opera rock” song, which had never been done before. The group worked together to create a song that was different from anything else that had been heard on the radio. The company that managed Queen rejected the song to put as the single on the radio, but the group persisted. The song consists of all different genres of music ranging from rock to opera (two opposites of music). The group faced huge criticism from the radio critiques, but fans absolutely loved it. Because it was against the norms, critiques rejected it, but they failed to see the popularity of the rest of the world. All of the songs that they created were different than anything else heard before. For example, “We Will Rock You,” this song involved the audience for stomp their feet and clap their hands. The acceptance of their fans ended up being more important than what any critic said about any of their songs. Queen was such a creative group because, like they said themselves, it was a group of misfits who fit together because they were all misfits. The group ultimately combined all of their imaginations to create music that was so unique to any music heard in history.

Bulletin boards. They always just appear, but how much time and effort really go into them? I mean it’s just a bunch of paper stapled to a wall, right? Well there is much more to it than that. As a Gryphon, I have had to develop quite a few bulletin boards based on a curriculum given to me by the Office of Residence Life (ORL). Yes that’s right, your Gryphons have a curriculum for your residence halls. Each bulletin board I hang up has to fit into what the ORL wants me to do.

At the beginning of this semester, I had to create a bulletin board all about “SMART goals.” I was given a website that explained the acronym and I had to build a board based on that. Now, I could have just copied and pasted the information onto some paper and hung it up, but I took the time to understand the information I needed to share so that I could create a decent bulletin board. I had to be creative in how I wanted to convey the information, so I provided my own examples and wrote important words in green so that my residents knew they were important. By doing these things, I was able to create a somewhat interesting bulletin board for a pretty boring topic.

My newest bulletin board had to fit under the “Creative Curiosity” category. You may recognize that as one of the 5 Foundations of Success that has been drilled into your head since orientation. Being a Bethlehem native, I always want to share my town with others, so I decided to make my bulletin board all about Bethlehem. But how did I want to do this? Well, I’m always watching Netflix, so one day I had my show paused and I glanced at the “pause” screen and… that was it! The screen was the perfect blend of information and image, so I decided to make a Netflix-like board and model my information after that pause screen. I titled the board “Now Trending in Bethlehem” and chose 10 places that are worth checking out on both the North and South sides of Bethlehem.

Creating bulletin boards can be quite the process. Sometimes you are given specific instructions and other times you are given the freedom to do whatever you want. I personally love creating bulletin boards; I find it to be a good challenge for my creative mind. I have yet to use Pinterest for a bulletin board idea; I want to keep my ideas totally original. Who knows, maybe a Netflix board already exists, but maybe I’m the first one to create one like this. I have even considered posting my ideas to Pinterest to share with others, but I’m still working up to that. – Amie Januszkiewicz