Emmanuel Iheke

September 7th, 2018

The definition of the word “odd” is “different from what is usual or expected; strange.” Throughout history, the word odd has taken a negative connotation. I mean, who’s to blame? There are a lot of unusual things that are also not pleasant – like flying spiders and white contacts (why do people where those?). To be  odd  always means being that one person that is different from the pack. Let’s face it, it isn’t fun being that different person from the pack for several reasons. You get a whole lot of unwanted attention, you may face bullying and judgement, and above all you find it hard to relate with others. Being odd just isn’t really cool. When you think and act different from everyone else it could make you feel like you’re all alone on this earth.

The definition of the word “creative” is “relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.” It is great to be labeled a creative. Especially in this day and age. People who are labeled creatives tend to make a lot of money: Virgil Abloh, Kanye West, Andre 3000 and so on. Being a creative is all about thinking out of the box and being able to articulate those thoughts to the rest of the world. Creatives are revered to in this life.

So here is the questioned posed. How is being odd and being creative relate to each other? I believe they do in every way. You cannot be creative without first being odd. That’s the whole point about being creative. If everyone can think and articulate it, then is it really creative? A creative’s biggest characteristic is being original. How can one be labeled a creative if they do the exact same thing that others do? Every good thing comes with a cost, and being odd and unusual is the cost of being labeled creative. Some of the most creative artists I’ve listened to are from the hip hop duo, Outkast. This duo was formed by rappers, Big Boi and Andre 3000. If you wanted to see firsthand how odd relates to creativity they are the perfect case to study. From their lyrics to their music videos, they were excellent at articulating and displaying the out-of-the-box thoughts they had to the public. We’ve all seen the music video to “Hey Ya!”, where Andre 3000 sings lead vocalist in a band of 7 men who are also him. There’s also the music video the the song “Prototype” where Andre is an alien who finds love on planet Earth. This stuff is unarguably odd. However, because of how well it articulates a new/different thought, it is in fact creative. If it weren’t odd, there would be nothing original or artistic about it in the first place.

The big takeaway from all this is to not be ashamed of being different. There are 7.5 billion people on this planet. God didn’t create 7.5 billion people to all fulfill one task and one purpose, that would be overkill. He made everyone of us different in our own right, and we should not despise that. We should love the fact that we are different and see where that can take us. It may very well lead us to our destiny.