Something money can’t buy

People can buy pretty much everything with their money these days: food, clothes, flowers, cars, houses—just name it. But still, there’s something that money can’t buy.

Creativity. It is earned by passion, and Anum Ansar ’21 is full of creativity, drawing or writing poems with passion. “She is very artistic and is a great poet. She is a fast learner who is passionate about whatever she does,” Umber Shafique, Ansar’s mom said.

Ansar’s interest in abstract art started back when she was young and inspired by her babysitter. “She used to draw rainbows (as) straight lines across the sky, instead of curved rainbows. So for the longest time I kept making these straight lines instead of curved rainbows,” Ansar said.

Now, as an artist herself, she gets inspirations from everything and anything.

“The randomest idea ever just pops into my mind,” Ansar said with a laugh. “Let’s say I’m thinking about kittens. I think about kittens wearing sweaters and I’m thinking about sweater production and then I’m thinking about fashion… It’s just tangent, tangent, tangent… And they usually end up being my inspirations.”

She expresses her ideas on a paper with her own way using different lines and colors: straight lines, curved lines, blending colors and contrasting colors. Her work might end up something that no one ever thought of. 

Besides abstract art, Ansar also likes to write poems in her free time. It was about three years ago in seventh grade, when she really got into poem writing. Thanks to her English teachers, she was exposed to a wide range of poems that sparked her interest. 

Many students consider writing poems as just a piece of homework they want to procrastinate. For Ansar, however, it’s different. It’s a way to relax and let her creativity flow. “I just get creative spurts. I’m just sitting and contemplating the meaning of life and suddenly after, I write poems,” Ansar said.

It isn’t just Ansar herself who relaxes through her creative works. They deeply impress the ones who get a chance to look at her pieces. “I believe she is immensely talented in arts as well as poetry. She has actually impressed me and stunned me into silence because she is that good and impressive,” Shafique said.

Ansar uses poems as outlets for her emotions. “Sometimes I’m really depressed and that usually results in the works I make. Sometimes I’m really angry and I need an outlet. But sometimes I’m just super-duper happy and creative. It just really varies (how I feel) when I’m writing,” Ansar said.

Ansar feels happier and settled after being creative. “It’s about being creative, feeling that my hands just need to do something, just itching, I’d say.”