Fostering Creativity Blog

This week I wanted to take some time to reflect on my experience with remote schooling. 2020 has been  a year unlike any other and we are all feeling the effects of a global pandemic. Remote school has been especially challenging for me, which is odd because I'm doing fine in classes, and I'm submitting assignments on time or even early. Despite all of this, I've never felt so much emotional struggle with school.  In 2016, after bouncing around different schools for partial class loads and different jobs in retail, food service, and just about any other entry level position you could think of, I went back to school at Red Rocks Community College. Though there was a bit of a rough start, I began to excel in school. I was so motivated for all of my classes, even those outside my major (Business at the time) I approached with a growth mindset and was able to find immense value in just learning for learning's sake. I felt like I was expanding my horizons, broadening my mind...

       Scrolling Facebook the other day, this video popped up on a "recommended for you" page. I was instantly drawn into the content and able to connect so many of the ideas we're learning for class with what the designers of the neighborhood were doing.  Check out the neighborhood here This neighborhood is in Tabasco, Mexico and it's entirely 3D printed! I couldn't believe it when I saw how beautiful the buildings were. The neighborhood is for people who are living on just three dollars a day or less. The houses only take 24 hours to print! A computer is hooked up to a machine which lays cement on an X/Y axis and creates the buildings from the ground up. After the foundation is laid, local workers are hired to attach doors and do electricity and plumbing work.  This is an amazing example of a creative approach to problem solving. A non-profit company called New Story, together with a tech company called ICON came up with the unique solution to address glo...

Since October is here and ghost stories abound, I'm starting to think about the time I visited the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park for the first time. I went with my now ex boyfriend and I forced him to watch The Shining the night before so he would have context for why the hotel is creepy and cool (he fell asleep).  The hotel is open to the public for people to walk around and there's lots of movie memorabilia, it even has a resident psychic and a miniature of the maze used for the movie. I remember being drawn to the grander of the building and laughing at the fact that we looked so out of place there in our grimy hiking gear with our school backpacks among the guests who could afford to spend around $300 a night for a room.  It's a lavish and beautiful building (although I've heard the food is bad) and it is definitely a fun tourist attraction to check off the Colorado List while the leaves are turning up in the mountains. After we roamed around the lobby and the outside...

This semester, especially virtually, I've been struggling to put aside time and space for school work in my daily routine since I'm not commuting to campus and getting into that "School Headspace." Also, since my major is Digital Design, I've been spending a lot of time alone in front of a computer, at home, in my room. It's not the most healthy way to work, especially since I'm fitting school in around my work schedule and my circus training as well. I'll often spend all day (literally 8:00AM-6:00PM) on my days off working on a project so it's done for the week. This often gets me into a negative headspace with my projects because I've been staring at them for so long I oftentimes start to hate them.  Something that has helped me break out of this mentality and unhealthy cycle is to go to coffee shops with my friend who works from home to get some school work done in a new and inspiring environment. This helps to get me out of the house, and a...

Yesterday at work did not go smoothly. I work at Starbucks inside Target, and our register system is very old and finicky. In the middle of rush yesterday, it decided to go down entirely. When that happens, we need to take customers over to the Target Cafe and check them out there. The process is arduous because customers have to order at Starbucks, wait for their drink, walk to the cafe with their drink, and tell the cashier at the cafe their order again so that cashier knows what to input into the computer. Another problem is that the Target Cafe system doesn't have all of the specific Starbucks menu items, and customers aren't able to pay with their Starbucks app or card, or redeem/collect rewards. Overall, its a situation which sets up for very unhappy customers.  To make matters worse, I'm still a new employee, so I don't have the full grasp of even the Starbucks system yet, and adding on another system which isn't entirely formatted to handle Starbucks orders ...