CREATIVITY ACROSS THE POND BY GRANT SKELTON

My first semester of my junior year I embarked on a four-month journey to study abroad in Barcelona, Spain. This was my first time traveling alone, and I had no clue how much studying abroad and creativity were connected. The first thing I experienced was having to work through several different problems and ideating fluently. I had to decide where to travel, find the cheapest flights, come up with multiple itineraries, and navigate from place to place. This process was very similar to ideation involved with creativity. Many times, I would plan out my travel and trip using several possible scenarios. However, my travel plans would often have flaws, and I would be forced to brainstorm travel routes and plans over and over. This process, which is similar to solving problems creatively, helped identify problems, brainstorm several potential ideas, and come up with a solution using my resources provided. Studying abroad also involved lots of failures, and in my opinion creativity and failure go hand in hand. When you are being creative you are pushing the boundaries, and this often times leads to failure. While studying abroad I encountered many failures. These included but were not limited to flying into the wrong airport, getting my phone stolen, overpaying and getting taken advantage of, and getting lost numerous times. However, after each of these failures I learned something. I learned to be more detailed when planning my travels. I learned to be more aware of my surroundings. However, despite all this the most important thing I learned was that failing makes you better and helps you grow. That is why I believe that there should be no caution when being creative. Creativity involves failure, and it is that failure that helps drive the true creativity worth seeking.