The Creativity Problem

We live in a nice suburban city nestled snuggly in the cradle of Silicon Valley, where
“ingenious” start up companies are continuously sprung up in a cluster together, where nearly every family is supported by the awe-inspiring power of technology, and where we all love to “stay healthy” and “go green” by going out in our morning jogs as, many magazines which backed up by accomplished doctors say, is good for you. What could possibly be wrong?

Here in my school, we constantly have to put up with competition, not just with other schools, but also each other – which is something that has been going on for a long time, but surprisingly, we’re still not used to, and complain about.

It is common now, to have your freshmen friends go straight into some AP language class, your sophomore friends skip straight into Computer Programing class because apparently they already know programming language, your junior friends getting 2400s on their STAR tests, and your senior friends getting into Stanford.

Your choices of in this school is a combination these choices; good at math, good at computer programming, good at starting up companies, good at writing, good at science, good at violin/piano. And you must order a combo.

By the end, if you are not a doctor, then you’re a lawyer, and if not a lawyer, then you’re a computer programmer, and if you’re not a computer programmer, you’re a scientist. And you must at least be a CEO before your junior year. Because just “a good student”, “straight A’s”, and “a full score on SATs” will not look good on your college application.

The key point that we have always been taught but never truly followed is the importance of creativity. Doing what you want to do, which is not necessarily academic related. If you want to be a Silicon Valley-Renaissance Man (which should be all of you out there), then you need to look at the world in a bigger picture. Silicon Valley was built on creativity. Not by following the crowd.

Seriously, do we really need another social networking site? Not everything revolves around instant messaging.

Do what you want to do. If you like acting, then join drama. If you like singing, then join choir (although you should make sure that you can actually sing first). If you like writing, then write a novel. This isn’t that hard. The only thing that is stopping you is the knowledge that you aren’t following the safety of the crowd.

The problem is, everything at this school is like applying for college; being an officer for a club, joining ASB “so it could look good on your college application” (aren’t you sick of hearing that?), signing up for five different volunteer club (you know who you are), and calculating your “precious” points in your Activity Point Sheet like a second grader.

Do yourself a favor and just go out there and do what you want, whatever you want. You want to dance? Go dance like crazy in the rally court – you’re young and you still have tons of room for mistakes. Try anything. Try everything.