Cookies And Cream

Not Your Usual Story, At All

The strangest thing in my country is a science major who is good in art. Not only in designing or drawing, but especially in writing. The belief held is that students pursuing art courses and programmes are the only artists out there, which, in all honesty, is a prejudice most far from the truth: here I am, a science major with a quill for a hand.

    Before I proceed, however, I would like to talk about art and its prejudice. Art, as we know it, is the creative and emotional expression of mental imagery, be it auditory, visual, social and what not. Art portrays a certain emotion that relies on creativity to tug at the heart strings, or the cognitive psychology, of the viewer: it seeks to share. Emotion and creativity are therefore not set aside for only those who pursue law and journalism, as we seem to think, but are inherent in everyone. The individual, then, establishes the way in which to channel his artistic energies. This unfortunately, is where the shock begins.

To be able to express creativity to the maximum is a gift few are willing to discover. I began to read in the kindergarten and by grade two, I decided  would write too. My first few works, I remember, were short songs for my ears alone. After a few creative arts classes, I added drawing to my art portmanteau. Soon, I was also one of the best drawing artists in my second grade class. However, that was not the initial dream.

Some weeks and a couple of movies later, I found an unused exercise book and began to pen down the images running riot in my head. The story was not very original since I got my inspiration from a movie, but it was something. The book travelled round the entire class because, and to quote the third graders, "that was very interesting. Please continue"; and that I did. Even before the story ended, I had gotten my hands on another unused exercise book and resolved to put both my writing and drawing skills to good use. What was born from that idea was a comic book on another movie. My classmates ate up the story either way. So that began my story writing journey.

Nevertheless, at the time, I was intrigued by science. What is in this that made the bulb light up? Why did we have days, nights, leap years? These questions and many more have sparked my interest in this field of learning. Why do I bring this up? To cement the fact that even through the questions and wonderful revelations of science to me, the pen will always feel perfect in my hand. I have gone from natural science, through to integrated science and narrowed it to physics and chemistry and yet, my passion for writing has not weakened. Short stories fill my jitter, longer ones their own books and poems my diaries.

Science is still a driving force in my life but my poems have, to quote, "inspired" and touched hearts while my stories entertain and probably confuse, which is very entertaining. My creativity, even though I am a science major, is put into the poems and stories I write to allow the readers a peek into the worlds that encompass my brain. All I want to say is, creativity is for all, many who find it use it and the few who find themselves in the wrong creative lanes make the most out of and I believe I am one of those few. 

 "Well, Lahna, we hope you can prove all those people wrong," the Miss Dean says to her with a warm  smile.