Interview conducted by Katie Brown in the The Crossings’s series on creativity and diversity within Bethel University’s student body. The heart behind this series is to explore creativity in a broader sense and to be encouraged and inspired by the creatives on our campus and the things that they are doing.
Samuel Thomas is a senior studying Math at Bethel. He likes spending his time on the soccer field and in Sailor Hall (the lobby of his current residence in Manges). Samuel plays soccer and loves being outside in nature, hiking, biking, rafting, and writing.
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How would you define creativity?
I would say creativity is the expression of who you are in your own unique ways.
How do you express your creativity?
Writing is one of the ways I express who I am as well as my thoughts and emotions. I also express it through soccer because it’s something I’m good at and can be able to share with other people.
At what age did you discover your outlet?
For writing, I would say my freshman year of high school was when I got deep into writing. For soccer, my entire life.
Do you have a routine? If so, what is it?
For writing, write one poem a week on Friday mornings, for short stories, it’s more sporadic, I write them whenever I have time.
Do you gravitate towards a specific genre? If so, why?
I have my own genres for writing, I don’t really follow the rules of genres or rhyme. It’s more like a journal entry in poetic form. You can’t define poems by a single genre, it’s just something I do.
Where do you find inspiration?
I would say I find inspiration through my relationship with God, which is what a lot of my writing has to do with as well as things I think about with my relationship with Him and other people. Nature is also a big thing; I love nature and experiencing the beauty of it.
How do you balance your workload with being creative?
I have a pretty full schedule, so it’s hard to balance it out. But, writing matters a lot to me, so I will find time to write. I think understanding my workload and prioritizing it, you must also find the time to do it. For me, I carve out an hour on Friday mornings to write.
Is there a way that you specifically explore your creativity on campus?
I share my writing with others and do a lot of writing on certain things that happen on campus. My writing isn’t limited to here, but I would say it’s through my normal ways of sharing my work with other people.
Do you have any words of wisdom you’d like to give our readers?
Appreciate something for what it is and gravitate towards things that are similar to us but realize the value of something else completely different.
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