How One Interview Can Create a Spark

My one word for 2021 is Create.

If you read my previous blog, after officially launching My EdTech Life, something within me just clicked and creativity just started to flow. I like to consider myself a creative person, but this was different, this was new, I still can’t put it into words, but I started to see things differently and I needed a creative outlet.

For about a year and a half, I went through a creative standstill and focused more on sharing edtech news and notes, which was not bad, but I was simply resharing what was being put out there by others. Then on August 15th of 2020, I had the privilege of interviewing Al Thomas. I had followed Al for a while on Instagram and I loved reading his posts and seeing the content that he shared. Al began to encourage me to just continue creating and exercising my creative muscles. That really stuck with me and I continued to create and put myself out there more. Again, this was something I thought I had done before, but this was different, I was actually putting myself out there more.

Was this something easy to do? No, not really, not at all. However, a spark went off in me and I just started sharing. I would take one picture and share different iterations of that picture using different apps and just put it out there in the open for all eyes to see. What would people think, “Oh here’s Fonz with the same picture, what filter did he use this time, what does he have to say?” It is difficult to really put yourself out there in front of people who do not know you, but as I continued to exercise my creative muscles, those feelings and insecurities were no longer a thought.

What Al said in that interview has empowered me to continue to do what I am doing and creating not only through My EdTech Life, through short vlogs, and now blogs. Well, what he said was something that was very powerful and has made a mark in my daily practice as I continue to move forward creating more this year. Check out the clip below.

Thanks to these words that Al Thomas shared, I have decided that my one word for 2021 will be Create! I will continue to create and exercise my creative muscles daily because you just never know who may be watching and waiting to see what you do to ignite that spark in their creative process. I have also learned to not hold back from allowing people to get to know the real me through the various iterations of the same photo in all my posts, through my morning Instagram videos, through the My EdTechLife Podcast, and now through my writing. I do not want to look back later in life and say, “I wish I would have…” I want to look back and say “I said I would and I did it!”

You can watch or listen to the full interview with Al Thomas here.

Sincerely,

-Fonz