Christmas morning, the sun was rising over the horizon, soft rays of sun entered my window and hit my face. I quickly got up and ran as fast as my five-year-old legs could carry me. As I entered the family room, my eyes instantly shot to the bottom of the tree. I grinned ear to ear and bolted to open them when I noticed one quite large. My eyes were drawn to the shiny red foil wrapping paper like a moth to a flame. I was surprised how dense it was as my weak arms began to tremble from the weight. I began ripping through the paper and was met with a green x. I asked my mother what it was because at the time I didn’t know how to read. “It is an Xbox,” she said with a tired voice. After all the presents were open I begged my mother to hook it up. The Xbox lit up and played that ringtone startup, a sound that gives me goosebumps to this day. The first game I played was Halo 2, a first-person shooter where I played as a seven-foot armored killing machine called the “master chief ” alongside my trustee companion Cortana. However, before I started to go through aliens like wet toilet paper I ran into a slight issue. I couldn’t read. This is what made me fall in love with a medium that is unlike any other combining art, writing, music, and interactivity together to produce an experience that can only be described as magical. I played many games after this, but living in rural northwest Oklahoma had a drawback. I had no internet. This excluded any multiplayer or social aspects of gaming, which was fine at the time. Multiplayer was still in its infant stages and single-player games dominated the market. However, money was also a recurring problem, and video games are inherently expensive. My parents worked full-time jobs just to pay the bills and couldn’t afford to purchase games. Gaming has done more for me than most activities in life. It has provided salvation after a long day, lifelong friends, an appreciation for art, a unique way of thinking and self-reliance. Video games have more to offer than gameplay. Video games inspire, giving you the ability to feel like a badass and do things you couldn’t in real life. A lot of people merely see the surface value of video games. To this, I encourage you to pick up a controller and try one yourself. A Trip Along with Crosrojas

How to Navigate Challenging Times by Tapping Into Your Creativity What can we do, in troubling times, to support ourselves and our communities? I believe the answer is art. Here’s why. With these “unprecedented times” comes some unprecedented emotions. In the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25%, and many are feeling the crunch of increased costs of living, political unrest and non-stop news. We are all feeling so deeply at this moment in history, and it is undoubtedly affecting our mental health. What can we do, in times like these, to support ourselves and our communities? I believe the answer is art. Having an outlet isn’t the cure for what we’re experiencing, but it can be the medicine. Art can help us process our emotions and to share our inner experiences with others. It’s a way to move through it.

Art is a way around all that. It’s a way to break those stigmas, express ourselves in a safe way and move our emotions through our bodies. You’ll also find that, by having a creative outlet, you have a tool that helps you address challenges as they come up. With every bit of horrible news I see, I remind myself to take it to the canvas, where I let those emotions move through me and into the paint. There is truly no more creative time in our lives than childhood. It’s a free and precious time where creativity flows easily and in abundance, but it is fleeting. Many of us were told at a certain age that we had to “grow up” and take on more mature pursuits — like school, careers, parenthood, etc. Many are not told to continue to express themselves through creativity. As we grow up, we’re told — by loved ones and society — that art isn’t a mature outlet. There was a time when we all identified as artists and could express ourselves creatively, but that changed somewhere along the line. We came to think that some of us are artists and some are not, but the truth is we all are artists in our own ways. There is no prerequisite to being an artist, there’s no level of expertise needed or amount of practice. Using honest art to process emotions When I tell my students to “leave it on the canvas,” I mean that they can fully express what they’re feeling through their art. You don’t have to create pretty art or gallery-worthy art. You can create art that honestly reflects what you’re feeling in the moment. You don’t need to paint like Van Gogh or play music like Chopin. You don’t need to worry about what others might think of your creation or if it will make you money. Create things purely for yourself, not for the sake of making something for others. If we are to use our art to improve our mental health, it means we have to tell the truth — our truth. Art also does more than heal us individually — it helps us reflect our emotions and experiences to one another. Think about the last time you saw a truly moving piece of art or heard an emotional song. Did it take you back to a time and place where you felt those same feelings? Did it make you feel not so alone? That is the power of art. We’re all artists