By Patxi Elizalde

Roadblocks at Home

Christmas break was much needed. Even though there was a fair amount of work to be done during, it was still a necessary vacation from the everyday craziness of SCA. On top of that, I was finally able to go home to the Philippines to hang out with my family. Puffer coats turned to Hawaiian shirts, leather boots turned to flip flops, and best of all, the biting cold turned to scorching heat. Happy as ever, I really couldn’t ask for much more. However, I did find one thing was missing. One really important thing. That thing was inspiration.

I understand and believe the statement: “Inspiration is everywhere.” As long as you keep your eyes open and pay attention to the world around you, you can essentially find inspiration in anything. However, over break, that wasn’t exactly the case.

Maybe it was the fact that my brain just wanted to shut off for a little while to rest before school started up again. Maybe I was just distracted by my family’s presence, or being back in my childhood home. Maybe it was the sun, constantly beaming over me, shining rays through windows, calling my name: “Hey dude, check out how hot it is outside. Didn’t you miss me? Why did you even move to London? The sun over there is lazy as f*ck and calls it a day way too early in the winter. Don’t you wanna make the most of your time with me? Come out. Come out and play.” Maybe my brain just isn’t used to thinking like that in that setting. Whatever it is, all my ideas were absolute shit.

Now, I’m not trying to say that my ideas in London are any better than shit, but I like to think that I’ve come up with, I don’t know, slightly polished turds, or you know those shits you take when you don’t even have to wipe because it was just so clean? Anyway, the ideas I was coming up with back home were, like, wet, chunky, little toilet water butt splash, no toilet paper in sight, little pieces of corn shits. Excuse my crass metaphors, but wow, I was frustrated.

Anyway, I made do with what I was given and kept trucking along through scamps anyway, churning out shit idea after shit idea, telling myself that maybe after 10, 20, 30, something interesting would come to me. Nothing really did.

Now, the funny thing is, literally the moment I got back to London and stepped into my flat, it was as if my brain suddenly jolted awake, and the ideas started flowing again! I immediately pulled out a stack of papers and started scamping, and was finally coming up with ideas that I could chuckle at or enjoy again! It was the strangest thing.

So, to finish off my long and awkward story, that experience showed me that the setting in which you come up with ideas is extremely important in determining the quality of said ideas. We always discuss the importance of getting out of the classroom and finding a spot that works well for you, so I understand that certain places (like the classroom itself for example) can limit your ideas and create road blocks. It was just really interesting to me that going home, where all my early memories took place, where everything is familiar, really affected the way my mind worked. I guess London really is where I’m meant to be at this moment. Moving forward, I really hope I can find a way to break through those roadblocks and create my own inspiration.