What kind of place would the world be without imagination? It's an extraordinary phenomenon when you stop to think about it. Every great invention or discovery started with a little imagination, with something thinking "What if...?" It is a crucial part of human intelligence and development, and without it we would almost certainly still be living in caves.
Imagination is a vast topic - limitless really, stretching as far as any individual's mind can reach. So, the aspect I want to focus on is the one I feel most passionate about - imagination in the world of art. Art covers a vast array of subjects, from painting to music to fiction and everything in between. Imagination and art come together to provide us with creations of beauty, of emotion, of drama; they can be as close to or as removed as possible from our everyday lives. It is true mark of the greatness of the human mind, that we can dream new worlds, mad adventures and even something as complex as human personalities.
I'm particularly passionate about imagination in this sense, as I believe we would not be able to cope with the real world without it. It fuels our dreams and desires and gives us hope of something better. The real world can be wonderful, but it can also be terrifying and dangerous and depressing, so imagination provides us with a sort of escapism. A source of comfort when reality becomes too much. And imagination provides us with versatility, as what soothes one person may not do the same for another. So, we can choose to listen to music that relates to our problems, or avoid them entirely by reading about a world entirely different to our own, or even create a whole new work of art ourselves in order to express how we feel.
Story-telling is one of my favourite ways to use my imagination, whether it be through the stories found in books, films and TV shows, my own attempts at writing, or simply allowing myself to day-dream. Stories come in all these different shapes and forms, but they are something that all of humanity has in common. Words woven together to create new lives. They allow us to experience things we cannot in the real world; daring adventures, epic romances, journeys into the unknown. We connect with the lives of characters, in ways we may not expect, as even the most bizarre and unusual of creatures as come from a human mind.
Imagination has kept me sane and even happy for years, helped me survive the real world. Music speaks to every emotion I've ever felt, expressing for me when I cannot. Paintings and drawings remind me of the beauty of life. And stories are my escapism, characters my best friends. So many amazing things have sprung up from people's minds and inspired my own. And I cannot wait to see what new wonders the world comes up with next.