LETS PLAY A GAME BY HANNAH STRAUB

It’s mid-summer. The smell of bonfire is in the air, and my stomach is full of gooey s’mores and hot dogs. I hear the crickets around me as I itch at my knobby 12-year-old knees. I’m lying barefoot on the trampoline with my neighbors around me giggling and reminiscing of the adventurous day before. The night sky, full of stars, envelopes us into this moment. “Let’s play Never Have I Ever! Oh, I’m so going to beat you all,” my older neighbor, Claire, says.

My heart starts to beat faster, even though I look completely calm. I loved this game, even though I would always lose at it.

My favorite part was listening to all the things that my friends could come up with and watching them put their fingers down one-by-one caused more belly laughs than I can count.

Those were simpler times and now when I think about it, I’d probably win that game by a landslide.

But college has shown me a whole new version of Never Have I Ever.

Never have I ever wanted to challenge my own perceptions of things.

Never have I ever understood how to ideate, and the miraculous benefits of it.

Never have I ever found peace in my unknown.

Never have I ever had complete faith in my potential.

These past few months of cultivating my creative mindset have proven difficult but beyond rewarding.

In all honesty, it’s amazing.

But there is nothing more confusing than being a cocktail of extremely happy yet extremely overwhelmed at the same time.

I’m still learning, and I’m still figuring out different ways to do things. But it’s awesome, dude.