How Creative Expression Changed My Life by Shakira

How Creative Expression Changed My Life by Shakira - June 2018 Scholarship Essay

One of the hardest, but seemingly easy questions that people must answer at some point in their life is, “What can you tell me about yourself?” When faced with this question, people often become stuck when they realize they know absolutely nothing about themselves. When I was assigned a short response essay having to answer this question in my sophomore year in high school, I found myself unable to make contact between my pen and paper.
Creative Expression is an elective offered at my high school which focuses on expressing ourselves through any form of art, whether it be visual, music, poetry, etc. Once entering this class it just seemed like a place for one to relax and get their thoughts together at the end of the day. The first week was a breeze, but then the challenges began the next week when we were asked to identify ourselves. Yes, it would be easy to scribble a couple of adjectives down that you believe to describe you, but the whole atmosphere really changes when the person asking the question is genuinely interested in what you have to say. When no one had an answer that they thought thoroughly described them, the teacher laughed and told us that that was exactly what she expected and that was okay. Throughout the year, my classmates and I explored different types of art, forms we liked and didn’t like, to try to find an answer to this question that scattered our brains.
“We’re only kids. Why do we have to do this now?” is question that was then evolved as the class progressed. Students began to travel down different paths, delving in to themselves. Slowly but surely, we found pieces of ourselves and were able to stick them together at the end. We soon came to realize that soon enough we would be in the real world and knowing our place in this world is very important. Our identity guides us to our future and we need to be able to figure out what paths we need to take in order to lead us to our success. Although who I am today may not be who I am tomorrow, creative expression has allowed me to know how to find myself when I lose myself.