Have you ever been a part of a giant human dartboard? Or followed random people around, mimicking their actions? What about an epic battle fought to the “death” with only balloons?

I’m proud to say that I now have.

This past Friday, Charlie Todd, the founder of Improv Everywhere, came to campus. If you haven’t heard of it, Improv Everywhere is a group that has performed a variety of stunts — like organizing a huge group of people riding the subway without pants on and surprising Little League kids with MLB-style coverage. Why did he come, you ask? To cause a scene, of course! He came to talk about his experiences forming the group, too, but that was later in the day.

The scene that he helped cause, with some help from the Student Association, was a mass of people in red, yellow, green and blue shirts all following instructions from an omnipotent figure named Steve on their MP3 players. It took place in one of the busiest parts of campus, and I was one of the 150 or so people who participated. It’s not every day that you massacre fellow students with balloons and look like complete and utter fools while having unbridled fun at the same time.

All of this made me nostalgic for my days of innocence.

Whatever happened to the good times, when we were free to do as we pleased and were without a care in the world? We used to frolic in jungle gyms and on playgrounds, entertaining ourselves with our own make-believe adventures, hurtling down slides like we were jumping out of planes. And then Order came along and gave us a stern talking to, so to say.

“Yes, you can still use your imagination to have fun, but keep it to yourself. Control it,” Order told us. And we did, for the most part. Schooling from kindergarten onward has kept us in check, sometimes enhancing and sometimes stifling our creativity and imaginations.

For example, while taking a course on British spy fiction one semester, you might come up with a brilliant idea for a spy movie, which is still being knocked around inside your head. But the following semester, your creativity might be elsewhere, and you run out of ideas for a video and filmmaking course. Another semester, you might co-write a stellar final paper on your favorite TV show for one English class or produce and direct an infomercial parody as a final project for another English class. Of course, the following semester, your creativity might be pummeled into submission with the reading of Shakespeare play after Shakespeare play (not to knock William).

I mean, how can you be creative at midnight when you’re rushing to finish that research paper due at eight in the morning, which, depending on your style, you’ve been slaving over or putting off until the last minute?

So, how can you rekindle your creativity? Keep thinking!

Keep yourself mentally stimulated with crosswords and brainteasers. Take a mental health day once in a while. If art is your cup of tea, keep sketching, painting and drawing. If music is your focus, keep composing, practicing and playing. If photography is what gets you off, keep snapping away. If writing is your thing, collect the thoughts that pass through your head in a notebook or a Word document. One of them might turn out to be a life-changing epiphany or just the thing to restart the fountain of ideas in your head.

Don’t lose sight of that spark of creativity.