Not Only an Act but an Art of Survival

By Sara Afifi
@saratafifi

Sitting in the Tim Sullivan Lounge waiting for more attendees to enter the room, I realized that we would be celebrating for the next hour the finest examples of creativity.

I was in a room that shined with and appreciated creative writers, thinkers and speakers of all kinds, majors and standings. The Madalyn Lamont ceremony was simply one of the best university events I had ever attended.

This year’s award theme was titled “Re-genesis 2022: Creativity as an Act of Survival” and featured Nesma Youssef Idris, renowned creative writer and an AUC adjunct faculty teaching at the Theater and English and Comparative Literature departments.

Idris illustrated how we survived the pandemic because of creativity: we had to be creative in finding ways to interconnect and maintain our mental and physical well-being.

It was then I realized how creativity was indeed a way I was able to survive the pandemic with my mental health intact. I realized how I found my passion for writing during the quarantine. I am now deeply thankful that I have started the long path to becoming a writer.

It then hit me how many of us actually find creative ways to cope with our daily struggles. Creativity is not confined to writing but can be anything we want.

For me, creativity is about writing because that emancipates the spirit; it makes me swim in my thoughts and most importantly, it allows me to breathe. Creativity is not only an act of survival but an art of survival too.