One of the most important aspects I have identified for professional and personal development is having the proper outlets for creative expression. Humans always need some way to express how they are feeling. Often times that creative expression is shown thrown the arts. Dancing, singing, theater, or any other performative arts are obvious examples for conveying emotions that others can understand at a deep level. Paintings, books, photography and other timeless pieces of raw, captured emotion are just windows into what a person is feeling. Unfortunately, I can’t dance, I’m working on becoming a good writer, and my singing career died when I couldn’t find an a capella group to join, so let’s take a look at what creativity looks like for the less art-inclined folks.

Public Speaking

Public speaking has always been one of the top fears just behind death. People are generally terrified of speaking in front of large groups of people. I originally wasn’t wild about the idea until I regularly competed in public speaking tournaments in high school. Although I don’t have the opportunity to make many speeches anymore, when I can I have a blast. Words are powerful, and I have made people happy, sad, confused, and impressed. The subtle art of public speaking is not easy, but with enough practice it can be a lot of fun.

For me, I found I had the most fun playing famous characters. Smeagol from The Hobbit was a great challenge not only in playing a non-human character, but developing a voice that was so unique. Everyone almost instantly smiles with horror when they realize I can say “Gollum” just like you hear in the movies.

Another famous movie I got to reenact with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The Black Knight was beautifully written, and the punch lines are amazing. Again, adjusting my voice to a crappy British accent was so much fun and yet another way for me to express myself.

Even if these roles were not reflective of who I was, the way I played these characters could be.

Programming

Public perception usually puts programmers in a very strict stereotype. It’s an unfortunate box to be put in because the world of coding is actually beautiful. Creating a well written program can be a form of self expression. Showing how you organize and name variables and decide naming conventions is a very analytical way to show how your mind works. It’s almost a deep and personal dive into who the author is.

Also, lots of programmers have very quirky senses of humor. Time and time again various programmers have added easter eggs just because. The Android operating system has always had a hidden game (like a Flappy Bird clone) added to it when it wasn’t necessary. Countless video games have wonderful jokes hidden where no one would think to look. “Why?”” you may ask. It’s simple: programmers like to self-express.

My latest self-expression while programming happened during my senior capstone project. We were required to write tests to make sure our code worked. Luckily, there were no guidelines on what those tests had to look like. I won’t say exactly what I did. (Although I’m sure anyone, regardless of coding experience, can find what I did on my GitHub).

Project Manager Positions

As I may have mentioned before, I spent a lot of time my second year of college helping out Champlain College Esports. My self-proclaimed Project Manager position was truly a part time job on top of my jobs and full time student status.

Part of the reason why I enjoyed being a Poject Manager so much was the opportunity for starting conversations. After attending Champlain College for a year, I was already able to see a lot of issues with administrative processes. In an effort to change that, I met with countless faculty, staff, and students. I had a vision of encouraging interdisciplinary studies by creating a space for all majors to collaborate in one massive project. Not many people realized how many specialized skills were needed to run an Esports program. Luckily, Champlain College had all the majors needed to run that program.

While my efforts went largely unheard, it was still fun to try to spark change. The countless meetings I had were one means of creatively expressing my ideas and getting people excited. Sharing dreams is always fun.

Even More Creativity

This list could go on forever. Creative expression is not just limited to the arts. Even in a technically-inclined college such as Champlain can create avenues for students’ self expression. Realizing this concept is massively important for employers, as employees who don’t have these proper outlets probably won’t feel great. Whatever the outlet may be, it is important that everyone has access to self-expression so all those emotions people feel aren’t bottled up forever.