Dina Climatiano

Creativity Challenge, Day 32:

I did it! I made my debut presentation at TranslateCluj and I talked about my creativity challenge to a room full of translators.

All in all, I think it went well.

I did not get chased out of the room with pitchforks. Not totally surprising considering translators don’t usually own pitchforks. Or invest much time in cardio, for that matter. Point is I couldn’t have asked for a better crowd

I did not turn into a puddle the first time I lost my train of thought. I did pause awkwardly for what felt like forever but was probably closer to 20 seconds to look fervently at my useless notes. Thanks for bearing with me.

I did not get laughed at during or after the presentation. I think someone shouted “we love you!” at some point in the first three minutes because I started audibly panicking that this was my first presentation and I did not know what I was doing? Might have imagined it, but it brought me back to the ground.

Quite frankly I wish they had laughed a little more… It was dead silent most of the time and I couldn’t figure out if I was just losing people’s interest or if they were trying to make sense of my insanity. When I was preparing the presentation, it didn’t even cross my mind that my little art projects could warrant so much seriousness.

My takeaways here are to – I don’t know – rehearse my presentation? Weave in deliberate audience participation? Make notes that are not useless? All of the above and more.

It didn’t help that I finished the presentation about 10 hours before I delivered it (in true translator fashion!), followed by a series of weird dreams about enraged translators brandishing pitchforks at a puddle that used to be me.

I don’t feel like I said everything I had to say, but I think I got the gist of it across – practice creativity, be vulnerable, get in touch with yourself and share with others, focus on the process not the result, all that good stuff.

Despite this and my constant internal monologue of “what are you doing omg sit down and wait for the ground to swallow you” blaring in my head – people seemed to respond to my message. They asked questions. I felt like I could have given more thought to how to open up a conversation around creativity, but my slot was just before lunch and there’s only so much finger painting you can show people before they start imagining you as rotisserie chicken.

Still, some came up to me later to tell me “well done”. Others shared their creative endeavors with me. Others responded to my own vulnerability and shared their recent hardships with me, which I think was worth the entire ordeal all on its own. Later, when Laura Sabau asked if anyone was thinking about taking up their own creativity challenge, I was stunned to see hands in the air. I feel like I’ve done my part then

Now if I could just find some good pictures of me doing this… Of course I didn’t think of asking anyone to take pictures or videos everything is a learning experience!