I think Creative Writing has ruined the color yellow for me. Not because I suddenly don’t like the color now that I’ve joined the department. But now I can’t look at it without thinking about Creative Writing. It could be a taxi on the street, the light at an intersection, even the pencil I use to take notes in my Physics class. A person wearing yellow? Obviously a secret CW enthusiast. Somehow, I always end up with the same thought. I suppose that’s what happens when you spend so much time surrounded by something. Many things begin to become associated without you realizing. A chair becomes someone’s spot. A table becomes the table. And yellow becomes Creative Writing.

And of course, this isn’t a bad thing. If anything, it makes the boring bits of my day so much more fun. I could be sitting in class, staring at my chipped yellow nail polish and remember the most interesting conversation I had with the other CW students the other day. Now, I don’t go around everyday totally consumed by writing. The first day of school didn’t flip a switch that caused me to be completely fixated solely on writing. There’s plenty of time when I’m not, but it does tend to pop up, especially when there’s nothing even remotely related to CW happening. 

I started noticing how much yellow there actually is once I began associating it with the department. Apparently, it’s been following me around this whole time. I just didn’t have a reason to properly see it before. Maybe that’s the part that seems strange to me. Nothing about the color has changed. A traffic light is still just a traffic light, and my pencil is still just a pencil. It’s still yellow, a color I didn’t mind but had no real reason to think about. 

Really though, I don’t think I can ever look at yellow the same again, which is a little ridiculous, but that’s why I love Creative Writing so much.