ON BEING A CREATIVE.

photo cred: amy murray

Whenever I take Buzzfeed quizzes (I know I'm not the only one who goes down those wormholes when they're bored), many of the quizzes end up with the same (and fairly accurate) responses. They identify me as logical. A good listener. A dog lover. Detail-oriented. A teacher. And someone with a compassionate heart.

Let it also be known that I've also been told through those same Buzzfeed quizzes that I'm going to get married in 2030 as well as getting married to Chris Pratt next summer and have six kids, too. 

So yes, I am well aware of the fact that those quizzes don't and can't truly define me or predict my future, but that doesn't always stop me from taking them and reading the results, especially when certain answers hit close to home with their descriptions.

When I took a quiz on left vs. right brains, I wasn't too surprised to see that I'm a left-brainer. In fact, I'm apparently 90% left brained and only 10% right brained. I'm totally fine with being more logical and detail-oriented, but I think I've limited myself with that identity.

I assumed that because I have a tendency to act and react with a logical response, it must mean that I can't, therefore, be a right-brained, a creative, or an artist. 

I think I've also limited myself with my creativity because I've assumed that you can't be a true creative if you aren't making money or aren't well-known in your creative niche. I've written about before, but I think there's still a part of me that doesn't believe I'm actually a writer because blog posts are self-published on the internet (and anyone and everyone can technically do it).

Thank goodness for new opportunities to prove myself wrong, though! As I've mentioned before, I started playing viola on my church's worship team and have really found a lot of redemption in my renewed relationship with music. Years past, music was a source of stress, competition, and cliques. I never really felt like I fit in and always felt pressure to play for perfection. Competitions will do that to me, apparently. After a break from that, I found myself turning to my viola to play worship music when life got stressful and my heart was broken and crushed.

And music began to heal my heart and brought on a love for well-written lyrics and repetitive melodies. I make my fair share of mistakes while playing on stage still but have been covered with so much grace in response. I realized that music can be used for many things, but that my heart really needed this chance to heal with music and let it be used for His good, not mine. And one of the best surprises from this experience is getting to practice music with my little sister, who love singing along with me.

In case you were wondering, yes, photography and writing are still two of my favorite creative outlets. And I know they'll always be the ones I love most because I know I can and will always turn to them when I need to. But it's been a lot of fun to stretch myself and go beyond what's comfortable and easy for me to do and try different creative outlets to grow and learn from those experiences and from the people I meet as well.

So here's to new creative outlets and reminding yourself that you're not defined or limited to one personality trait/type. You're way more than any single quiz result, my friend.