So about a year or so ago I took the decision to try a different path to the one I was on and take a step back from the arts scene I once knew and loved. After studying, working and pushing forward for the career I thought I wanted, I felt exhausted emotionally, physically and really questioned whether what I was doing was worth it. The late nights, lack of social life, the ever growing surroundings of colleagues and contacts rather than the friendship I craved, I felt a lone and lost. I'd lived in Newcastle since I was 18 and suddenly felt the need to escape to try a new way of life, a simpler, less emotionally draining job that I could leave at the door when I went home. So I took a job in retail, with a great company I'd worked with for years whilst I was a student, but It turns out whatever job I'm in, I find it hard to let go as soon as I leave the office. As a passionate person I have always invested myself in whatever I do, after a year away from the life I tried to escape from I've found myself craving the creativity I once had.
Being back in Leeds has given me happiness and spirit I forgot I had, now is the time to use that to bring my previous love of the arts back in to balance. As well as being a skill I believe creativity to be a habit, even if you simply write a sentence each evening or choreograph a small phrase each day eventually this builds up until you have a plethora of ideas to pull from. Those daily sentences will one day be large enough to fill a novel, those movements could one day be enough to fill a piece of music it all starts little by little so that's what I'm going to begin doing today. Building my creative bank up little by little and see where it all leads. It may be a few words, an image, an essay, a couple of chords on my Ukelele, who knows (and who cares I guess!)- This is my end of year resolution ready to start the new year. running, who needs chimes at midnight to start a fresh.
