My creative journey to space
The day I started writing for a living was both a frightening and exciting day. It was intimidating because the start of something new can feel like a jump into deep water. You cannot see, nor touch the bottom. What you do know is the surface. At the surface, you can see beams of light. Here, you can hear the sound of the waves. You can see seabirds flying so freely in the sky.
When I was younger, I was called a daydreamer. I could spend hours in my mind. I could worry, I could wander, I could fantasize.
I believe that our current education systems do not necessarily encourage this type of persona. Children hear to hold on to their most realistic dreams as optional career paths. The vision of our generation’s parents for their children is, I believe, a career path that creates predictability and safety.
Our societies strive for perfection. However, as a writer, I often feel imperfect. When pouring ‘imperfect’ written pieces down the drain, we forget about our journeys and how much success we can celebrate in just jotting down those first words on paper or screen.
Back to the daydreaming kid.
My daydreaming inner-child comes out again on paper. It goes against my adult soul that wants to put up safety nets. That kid allows herself to play and to be surprised. That kid also allows herself to make mistakes. When minimising fear, my willpower to create thrives. When falling, I get up, clean the dirt off my pants, and try again.
Going back to the daydreaming mind of that kid, actually allows me to write.
I believe imagination is the writer’s greatest gift. It was J.R.R. Tolkien himself who once said:
Do not laugh! But once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen), I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic to the level of romantic fairy-story… The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. Absurd. — J. R. R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien had such success with his imagination that it gave him the nickname ‘the father of the entire genre of high-fantasy’. No absurdity here I’d say. We do not even necessarily have to be reading this genre, nor liking it to praise Tolkien for putting an incredible amount of work onto paper. Work derived from his imagination.
On the days I lose my imagination and then my motivation to write, thinking my writing is imperfect, I think of astronaut Chris Hadfield. I imagine myself on this giant ball earth, spinning in space. In this vast space, we are still discovering things far beyond our imagination. We don’t even know the scope of what there is out there to discover. Discovery and exploration certainly speak to my imagination. As Hadfield says: “Impossible things happen”. They happen every day in our every day lives, whether we want them to happen or not.
I may not be the next astronaut, or ‘mother of an entirely new genre’, but I will keep on allowing myself to pursue my dream. I still have an urge to create.
