Passions Never Die

by Irvin Alonzo

Back in high school, I was able to balance everything that I loved - soccer, work, school, and art. In my art class, I experimented with plenty of art forms and in the end wound up falling in love with painting. Despite my interest to continue, things changed when I entered college. Being a first-generation college student, I wasn’t ready for the intensity of work that I was expected to juggle. Every week felt more and more stressful. I wanted to get back to creating art but every time I tried, my head was empty, and I had no form of creativity. I felt as if I couldn’t come up with any good ideas, and the ideas I did come up with were boring. So I would just give up. This creative block, that started off as temporary, began to feel more like the end of my artistic journey. I felt like I could no longer go back to creating any form of art. I gave up. Second semester of sophomore year, I started interacting with a lot of artists at BU, including my new roommate, who is an amazing artist, and I felt that creative energy coming back. I’m trying to get back into art, and although I’m still rusty, I’m slowly getting better. Now, I see this creative block as a moment where I lacked inspiration, and all I needed was a small break to find it again.