Video games have always been one of my favorite hobbies throughout my life. Video games offer me a way to escape reality and engage within the digital world. It lets me expand my imagination and use my creativity to the fullest. It also offers a fun way to communicate and connect with others. With this, video games helped me become who I am today. Whether it be action or laid-back exploring, playing alone or playing with friends, video games have positively impacted my life in many different ways. I’ve played multiple games, but the main game that has positively impacted my life is Minecraft. Minecraft offers a wide variety of different experiences for its players. Throughout the years of playing, I was able to find my passion, my interests, my creativity, and made friends and memories along the way. Minecraft began to positively impact my life when I first discovered how much I enjoyed creating games. Minecraft has a technical item called a “command block” that allows me to make whatever I want. With this realization, I was hooked and made my imagination become reality within the world of Minecraft. I would go on to learn so much and create many games, eventually testing them with friends. We would all laugh and enjoy the games so much, wanting to play them again and again. Creating games in Minecraft led to making new friends which I still play video games with to this day. Being able to easily communicate with people and engage in digital experiences means a lot to me as when it comes to real life, it’s difficult for me to communicate with others and to get involved in public activities. I tend to keep to myself, with my social anxiety preventing me from being outgoing. However, playing video games gives me the opportunity to communicate and connect with others, expressing myself and my creativity. Eventually, I was able to take my built up creativity, interest in game creation and skills with communication and brought it into real life. I would create games for my cousins, some being my own recreation of video games. I discovered that hosting and creating games and entertainment for others was my passion and my way of communicating and connecting to people, just as I do in video games. Furthermore, this interest in creating entertainment led me to start learning and creating 2D animations. Animation has always been an interest of mine. Video games and my passion for creating entertainment served as inspiration, opening the door for me to learn more about animating which I have come to love. Animating allows me to express myself and my creativity, while also being able to connect with others, the same opportunity video games gave me. Thanks to video games, I am happy for the creative person I have become. I continue to use the positive impacts video games have on my life today such as still making games for my cousins, helping a friend who I have inspired into game creation in Minecraft, involving myself with creating entertainment such as games and videos, and using my built up imagination and creativity in making 2D animations. I have learned that video games are so important in building skills and guiding people towards finding their own path, such as how Minecraft helped me become who I am today. Video games have the power to inspire, guide, teach, communicate, connect, and help someone discover themselves in the digital world, able to be who they want to be in real life.

What is my journey in the arts so far? What art-related life and career do I want to have in the future? I’ve been asked this many times and yet, I’m still unable to give a clear answer. I want to find the correct path to walk on, a path that is related to arts and my interests in it; a path that makes me happy. I’m in my sophomore year of college and I've been thinking a lot about my path, my art interests, and my future. I have always loved art. I love drawing, 2D Animation, watching TV shows and movies, content creation, and being creative. I took graphic design for my 4 years of high school and I'm continuing that journey in college as I'm majoring in graphic design. I have also started a core concentration in Visual Arts Film, Animation, and Video. I’ve always had all these interests but was never able to connect them and find out what I want to do in the future. That’s why now, I've decided to give it a lot of thought and focus on each of my interests. To begin, I've slowly been getting back into drawing. I enjoy drawing and I find myself being proud of what I’m able to create. I feel as if I have potential with my drawing skills. I want to get my drawings out there to see if anyone else is interested and has suggestions or ideas. And maybe through that, I could find my art-related path. I’ve always been interested in 2D Animation. Bringing my own drawings to life feels like the greatest thing ever. As of now, I'm not sure how to 2D animate, but it’s something I also want to start learning once I can get back into drawing. Next comes my creativity. Being creative is my personality, it’s what makes me who I am. I’m creative with everything I do, whether it’s drawing, creating a game for my cousins, writing papers or completing projects for college classes, writing stories, and so much more. If I am able to be creative with something, I can give it my all and be myself, which ultimately makes me proud and happy. If I can start drawing again and even learn to 2D animate, I could use my creativity to make something special. I could write a story, make my own characters, and make my imagination become reality. Lastly, I could share my creation with the world. I could make 2D animated videos and post them on the various social media platforms everyone uses. I could finally be a creator, making the very content I have always enjoyed watching. I could inspire people and make others happy, just like artists and creators have inspired me. I would be doing the things I have always loved, drawing, 2D Animation, making videos, and being my creative self. I’m not sure what my exact path is yet, but finding my path is the journey of art I'm on so far. Understanding myself, my interests, and what makes me happy is all part of the journey, taking it one step at a time. I hope to achieve my goals in the future, finally knowing what I want to do in my life. I look forward to continuing my art journey so that I will find my path and my future in the arts.

Have you ever done something like playing a game or doing an everyday task but decided to change it up a bit? Or have you ever watched a movie you enjoyed because it was different from other movies, even if they were similar to it? These are just a few of the many examples of the concept of creativity. The Concept of Creativity is being able to generate new and unique ideas that can be used to solve problems, communicate with people, improve something or even entertain ourselves or others. For me, I see the concept of creativity as uniquely changing something to not only improve it but to also make it stand out and be entertaining for everyone. I really enjoy being creative and I've always been a creative person. I’ve used my own creativity to entertain people and to improve the idea with many things, but I use my creativity the most whenever I make games for me and my cousins to play and enjoy together. I want every moment we all hang out together to be something that we can always remember. An example of how I used my understanding of the concept of creativity is when I made my own escape room for my cousins. I used what is normally used to make an escape room, but then changed things to be my own. I made it in a way to get my cousins to feel connected and engaged with the escape room. I also did my own puzzles by using my creativity and mixing it with things I know and enjoy. It was still an escape room and worked the same way, but it was also unique and different from a normal escape room as I used my own creativity and ideas. Another game I've remade for my cousins using my creativity was when I made Family Feud. When making the board, I created my own by using tape, paper, and legos. I used some Graphic Design skills I have to create designs for the answers and how the board would look. I didn’t have a screen available to be used in a good spot for the game like how most people would play family feud, so I had to use my creativity to make the game possible and it was successful. Being able to use your imagination, creativity and ideas can be amazing and effective. Being able to take something and change it to your own or even create something completely new is creativity. Every person has their own unique concept of creativity. Being able to take something, like an idea, and turn it into my own by improving it and making it more entertaining for people is how I see the concept of my creativity. That’s what the concept of creativity means to me. Creativity will always be important to me and something I will keep my entire life. My imagination and creativity are what make me who I am and I will use my understanding of the concept of creativity to continue to entertain people. In my major, Graphic Design Communications, I hope to be able to use my creativity to improve the designs I make as long as I'm able to. In the future, It would be great to see how I can continue using my creativity to entertain and satisfy people in my Graphic Design career as I have with other things like making games for my cousins.