It is obvious to see that our current educational system is not in the business of creating leaders, thinkers, artists, visionaries, innovators or revolutionaries. I’m a college student. And I go to class everyday and sit in rows with a bunch of assimilators, all fighting to fit in. Fighting to get all the answers right and afraid of taking risks. Fighting to wear the right clothes and own the right computer (ie. Apple). Fighting to join the right clubs and organizations. Fighting to be like everybody else. Fighting to score the job. The job that we have been guaranteed for a century if we follow the system. The job that has guaranteed us safety, security, benefits, insurance, and a retirement plan. The job that takes care of us if we are obedient and follow the rules. The job that promotes thoughtless employees; factory workers. People who are given the instructions and are told to execute accordingly. People who don’t have to bring anything unique to the table.

Here is an awesome post that I stumbled upon from Hugh MacLeod that I thought was rather interesting.

After reading this, I realized just how “hungry” I was.

Welcome to The Hunger.

The Hunger to do something creative.

The Hunger to do something amazing.

The Hunger to change the world.

The Hunger to make a difference.

The Hunger to enjoy one’s work.

The Hunger to be able to look back and say, Yeah, cool, I did that.

The Hunger to make the most of this utterly brief blip of time Creation has given us.

The Hunger to dream the good dreams.

The Hunger to have amazing people in our lives.

The Hunger to have the synapses continually fired up on overdrive.

The Hunger to experience beauty.

The Hunger to tell the truth.

The Hunger to be part of something bigger than yourself.

The Hunger to have good stories to tell.

The Hunger to stay the course, despite of the odds.

The Hunger to feel passion.

The Hunger to know and express Love.

The Hunger to know and express Joy.

The Hunger to channel The Divine.

The Hunger to actually feel alive.

Welcome to the Hunger.

The world can’t handle you being YOURSELF! So go ahead and BE it anyway!

If you look back over history, many of the remarkable people we read about in our textbooks and novels made the choice to be themselves. They made the choice to bring their gift to the world. They realized that they had something to say. Something to do. Somebody to be. They realized the world needed what they had. The world needed their gift. And they brought it. And we remember them.

People don’t realize you’re a gift until you’re gone…

I’m sitting in Starbucks with one of my nephews – Demetrice Allison. He’s 13 years old, and full of creative expression. The only problem is that he doesn’t have the proper environment to foster his creativity.

Question:

How many of us grew up with ideas and dreams and a curiosity to touch the hot stove?

It’s within all of us to express ourselves creatively. However, what typically happens is that our parents, our teachers, and society stomps it out of us. We’re placed on medication if we seem a little too abnormal or outgoing as kids. We’re told that too much creativity and uniqueness will make us weirdos (ie. Michael Jackson). So we suffocate our creative expression out of fear of not fitting in. To hell with fitting in!