After watching Neil Geiman’s commencement speech, I was deeply moved and felt I should write down my thoughts. It was so inspiring that of course I’d recommend anyone who hasn’t seen it, see it. It’s twenty minutes well spent.

Neil Geiman maintains such good humor and a sense of levity throughout his speech. It’s what kept me so keen really. In addition to the simple advice he imparts on learning how to write by, well, writing.

Isn’t that genius? Imagine that! To get better at writing by writing. I thought so. It’s the same in photography. You get better at taking pictures by taking more pictures. It’s sort of a merry-go-round discipline you have to instill unto yourself first. It’s that old saying about how you first make a habit; then the habit makes you.

I’m of the belief that the school of thought was wrong. We are intrinsically guided by principles, not by superficial rules that allegedly protect us from slamming against imaginary walls. At our core lie desires to create things. Although we often ignore them, in lieu of less pressing matters. But we are makers. Inventors. Creators. Everything around us was first imagined. A succession of electrochemical impulses whose only means of satisfaction was an avalanche of human physical action. There is art and design and thought in everything surrounding us. Nothing we built happened by chance. But some of the accidents caused by action and experimentation gave way to some of the most amazing things.

Art though, is an unstable element; a type of isotope, that although at times dangerous – for it may threaten the status quo – art is a necessary element that embellishes our lives. Art makes life infinitely more beautiful. Art is a shapeshifter who can take on any form. And lastly, I’d say don’t worry too much about choosing the right art, as it will likely choose you.