LOOKING THROUGH THE GLASS: A GLIMPSE INTO MY CREATIVITY BY KATIE PAULY

Creativity was never really something that I thought about while growing up. As a kid, you just are creative. It’s in almost all of your actions, and it determines how you view the world. As you grow up, however, your creativity is diminished- it is either pushed down by the school system, mean older kids, or it just grows smaller and smaller from neglect. I think that was happened to my creativity until I found my creative outlet- stained glass. At the time that I discovered this art form, I thought of it as something fun, challenging, and rewarding. However I slowly realized that it represented more to me. It represented the thing that I wanted to doodle about in my painstakingly boring high school classes. It was the thing that kept me out in my workshop at home for 13+ hours on end. It was the thing that I was immensely proud of yet never satisfied with. Stained glass had me ideating, brainstorming, failing and trying again, and continuously pushing the limits of my ability before I even knew that these actions were part of the creative process. Stained glass became the way that I expressed myself, and through it I believe that one can gain a glimpse into who I am as a creative.