Hello World!!!

I have finally arrived to leave my mark on this exciting, invigorating new semester of Creative Strategy with Tom and the gang!

I must say that coming into this course I had NO idea of what to expect. I guess that's what a semester of Tom does to you. His classic guideline of no rules, no boundaries and no exceptions is truly the framework of a creative individual. While I am not necessarily the most creative person alive, I'll definitely give it my best shot while I'm a student of Tom and Melissa. One of the thing I've learned to do, yet can always improve upon, is to just let loose - not be afraid of your limits and just pursue the first thing that comes to mind.

This not only applies to those of us entering the creative facet of the ad business, but also those of us who might be pursuing fields that are unrelated to marketing/advertising. Creativity is existent in almost every profession and way of life. It might be more transparent in, say, a creative-driven field like advertising but it is very much existent in any career path that requires a pulse. The ability to think abstractly and outside the box is such an awesome tool to have and yet so little people relatively speaking actually utilize it.

Why? My opinion is that creativity isn't exactly cultivated in secondary education and even lower-level college education across the world. We're so consumed with subjects like mathematics, sciences, history, etc. - all incredibly important fields in their own right - but yet in those very subjects are we rarely asked to expound upon the information we learn. We're taught to memorize facts to ace quizzes, write papers and make formal presentations to the class but it's not too often where a teacher tells you to "get loose and go with the flow."

Very often education is structured and has a limited framework to work within. Many times kids will just go to class, maybe stay awake for a few minutes or so, then leave. Some students are very good at memorization and are auditory learners and are gifted at recollecting what the teacher tells them. Others are just dazed and confused and bored out of their minds. But how about the ones that are asked to not only process the information dictated to them, but to reflect upon it and even make it their own? How many of those do we really see and how many are hiding away from it because nobody else is actually doing it?

These questions are what make Creative Strategy - and the creative aspect of advertising in general - unique. Rarely do you find a professional path that allows you to work outside your conventional limits while being paid for it. I expect much of this class to be similar to Creative Strategy I, but I do not expect the lessons I learn and the advancements I make in my thought process to be similar at all. I may not ever be the most creative individual on the planet, but I can definitely evolve and progress in that category. Because it's something I can always apply in one way and another and always make use of, no matter my destination in life.

Here's to a good campaign, everybody.