SOTA has an infestation. I came to this conclusion as I was trying to pay attention in class. Everyone knows it’s important to listen to your teachers and follow directions (Duh). In creative writing, it is instilled in us both to always put forth one-thousand percent of effort, and also, that we are constantly thinking from the perspective of a writer; processing everything we see with a macular lens. Since my freshman year, I have learned to take everything I see as the beginning of something. Even if I don’t act on it, there’s a story possible. I write poems, stories, and even plays based on what I come up with from things I’ve seen. This may be partly because of my personal approach, however, creative writing has taught me skills that are applied in many other areas. One of these being a willingness to run with an idea no matter how wild to see what might come of it. Much of the time, I don’t use what I start, but it’s helpful to have a plethora of ideas at my disposal every time we get an assignment and it feels impossible to think of something within the confines of deadlines. (A masterpiece cannot be rushed!) This leads me to how attentiveness in everyday life provides copious ideas for every time I get exhausted from writing about trees, rain, the sound of rain, trees rustling, perhaps a blade of grass—Back to the infestation. As I was diligently paying attention in class the other day, I noticed a blurry black speck in my periphery. I glanced over to see a small (but not so much that it didn’t warrant at least some drama) spider making its way along the edge of the table. It was tiny but had quite thick legs. So I scooched as far away from it as possible and went on with paying attention (although mildly disturbed). This minor incident was furthered by the sighting of a mouse (A MOUSE!) in the hallway. After hours, the furry thing dashed along a row of lockers and ducked into some crevice where who-knows-what-else lives. So essentially, I am saying that if I had a creative writing assignment due the first thing tomorrow, I could do it. You’ll never get stuck when you utilize what you saw on the sidewalk yesterday (plus a bit of imagination) to create something bigger than a splotch of dried-out gum. Getting pooped on by a bird is only bad if you don’t make something out of it.