“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
Always a daydreamer (read: I have the mind of Walter Mitty), I remember having a very real moment where I thought I needed to "grow up" and stop entertaining my "childish dreams". I shut it down. I forced myself to fit into a mold that I thought I needed to in order to succeed, but the consequences of shutting down imagination were far-reaching.
I became tired and numb to some of my emotions.
Even when I had free time, I didn't know how to reawaken the imaginative part of me again.
I became more of a robot than a human.
I recently moved from New York City to Redding, California, a tiny little town in northern California. One of the main reasons I moved here is the summer right before I came, a friend encouraged me to start painting with her. It was like I was retraining my brain to color outside the (non-existent) lines again. Coming to Redding, I realized I placed so many false expectations on myself and so much pressure on myself to be something I wasn't. At the same time, I drew so many lines because I was afraid of failing.
Take your imagination back. Be child-like, free to wonder and wander. When we stop imagining, we stop learning, we stop growing because we think we've already arrived. Take chances and get messy today.