Spill the paint: "Have you always been creative?"

Yes! Ever since I can remember, I expressed myself through creative hobbies. I loved to draw, but I also enjoyed any artsy craft – I made clothing for my teddy bears; miniature accessories and gifts for the Tooth Mouse (who went to the trouble of writing me teensy weensy letters!); I collaged; made greeting cards by hand; beaded; made papier-mâché crap… If the option to hand-make something existed, I opted to hand-make it.

But beyond the enjoyment of working with my hands, I was also a creative thinker. One of my earliest memories says it all: I was in pre-primary (so 5 or 6), and we were working on a little art project. Our teacher had laboriously cut out egg shapes from scrap material and pasted them on sheets of paper. I can’t remember exactly what the instructions were, but I’m pretty sure we could draw or paint anything, using the egg as a starting point.

Everyone in my class added some form of a bird and/or nest — a bird roosting on the egg, with a nest below — that sort of thing. I turned the page on its side — horizontally, so that the egg lay on its side — and turned it into a dragon, flying over a city.

I was lucky — my urge to turn eggs into dragons was encouraged and nurtured by my parents and my teachers. Many kids aren’t so lucky, and they grow up into adults who believe they aren't creative. Adults who often ask me if I’ve always been creative...

If that’s you — maybe it’s time to prove yourself wrong.