Creativity comes to people in all forms, at least it always did for me. I remember when I was about six years old, the paint on one of the walls in my room had begun to peel.

My parents could only get it renovated during the summer holidays when our family was not at home. The paint was peeling off at random places on the wall in different shapes. The six-year-old me didn’t find this weird or odd, like the current me would have found it. I was more of an optimist when I was younger; I used to look at things or problems and find a solution or a positive side to it. I feel like I was a lot more imaginative and I could form a story out of almost everything!

I found that the empty patches of the wall resembled various animals! Together my mother and I decided to fill the gaps with paint until the summer. We drew elephants blowing bubbles, fish, flowers, and much more. By the time we had finished, the room was transformed. The bare spots across the room had been given colour. Not only did that make the wall look better, but it brightened up the whole room. Each empty spot was now an object or an animal painted with vivid and bold colors.

All those who entered my house or came to visit us stared at the paintings in awe. They were definitely something different from what the guests were used to seeing! Those paintings stayed on the wall for a few months until it was time to get the house redone. I will admit though, I was upset when I came back from my summer vacation to find the wall blank and all my creativity and effort covered up in plain white paint. But being a ‘busy’ six-year-old, I moved on and soon forgot about painting the wall. The disappointment didn’t stop me from being more imaginative and coming up with all sorts of other ways to brighten up my house on my own.

It may not have been that big of a deal, but every time I look at old pictures of my family and me, I find myself admiring my and my mother’s handiwork! The memory of the paintings makes me feel nostalgic, but also inspired. If a six-year-old Adya could do something so creative, imagine what a fourteen-year-old Adya can do. In fact, I think the wallpaper paintings were just the start of my creative outputs; now that I’m in quarantine and have a lot of time to myself, I think I will go ahead and decorate a new wall or maybe even a door! One thing that the whole experience taught me was to make the best out of whatever life throws your way.

As Bruce Garrabrandt very rightly put it, “Creativity doesn't wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones.” This quote speaks to me, as I have found myself pulling out paints when I’m bored and staring at a blank piece of paper, but unable to come up with anything. And then one day when I am sitting and eating an apple, I end up looking at something, getting a bizarre idea on how to paint or do something with it, and do it!