Share your talents with the world

Once there was a boy who was going to take over the world. He had a natural gift that was his and nobody else's. The gift was special, and he was the only one who could give it to the world.\nBut he was not going to use his gift for political means or for monetary gain. His only hope was to bring some beauty to this world. And beauty came from the sky.\nHe liked to look at clouds. Their impermanence was a wonderfully tragic thing to him. He knew they only had a short time to live on their canvas. He would often find inspiration from the clouds, and his passion often fell into his pictures. \nHis emotions were translated in his art, and his ability to express his feelings was nothing short of spectacular. He saw the world how he wanted to see it, and he always dealt with it in his own way.\nBut the boy was getting older and it was time for him to go to school. \nHe was a bit pensive at first, but he didn't think school was that bad. He liked recess and looking out the window on the bus. Yet, his time inside the school made him wonder.\nHe wondered why the place was so square. He sat in a square, brown desk that was placed in a square, white room. He often looked at the square, gray tiles on the floor, which usually led his eyes to the square, brown door that was keeping him from the outside world. \nHe usually dreamed of desks shaped like clouds or even just round like circles. He wanted anything but the squares.\nHis daydreaming led him to trouble all the time. His teacher would sometimes call him to do math problems at the board. He didn't like math. The numbers were stiff, and it reminded him of the uncomfortable chair at his desk.\nHe was really starting to hate the day-to-day routine of school, but then the teacher said it was time for art and the children could draw whatever they wanted.\nThe boy's heart leapt. \nHe decided to draw with yellow and gray that day because that was how he was feeling. He felt like the sun reaching out to the clouds. He wanted to draw a picture for everyone so they could see how he felt about the sky. \nWhen he finished his drawing, it was everything he hoped it would be. He was so proud of his work that he showed it to his teacher.\nShe sighed the smile reserved for patience. She told the boy his picture was nice, but he might want to draw something else. One of the other boys had drawn an airplane that day. Didn't he want to draw an airplane?\nThe boy stood like the world had just fallen on his shoulders. He didn't know what to say. He couldn't understand why his teacher wanted him to be like somebody else. He had so much to share with other people, but now he didn't know if anyone cared. His teacher didn't care, and she might not be alone. He wondered if maybe the world was a place where you needed to fit in to make a difference.\nSo he decided to sit up in the chair at the square, brown desk in the square, white room. He would subtract and add all the numbers on the board, and he would never think of making his desk into a circle.\nThe boy eventually started drawing airplanes. He only used colors that made sense in the real world, and his emotions never spilled into his pictures. His feelings were no longer clear to him. He didn't really know how he felt anymore. He figured he probably just felt like everyone else did.\nAnd the gift he needed to share before didn't need to be shared anymore. Its need to break out of him had disappeared. The pushing had ceased to exist.\nNow the young boy is a young man who often writes columns in a certain newspaper. He often pushes limits to a fault. He is scared his pen will turn into a cookie-cutter. And with every rule he breaks, he thinks he might be one step closer. \nOne step closer to finding that little boy. And one step closer to leaving that square, brown desk.