I’ve never had an original thought in my life.

Okay, maybe once or twice, but I assure you those were complete accidents. As a product of a public school system, I’ve been taught to regurgitate, not learn. I’ve been passively instructed to superficialize, not internalize. I am a perfectly crafted standardized test taking machine, even after all these years.

It’s not braggadocio, of course. After all, here at Sacramento State, we all strive to become innovators, not automatons. That means retaining the information doled out during hour-long lecture classes and applying it. Moreover, it means thinking creatively.

In essence, a college student must strive to become what former United States Secretary of Labor Robert Reich called a “symbolic analyst.” Reich defined a symbolic analyst as a person whom can identify a problem and solve it, as well as strategically prevent further problems from occurring.

These skills are required by almost every job a college student could ever imagine filling, from artistic professions to high-level government positions. Even though disparate, these jobs hold at least one thing in common: a certain importance of understanding and manipulating symbols to achieve a goal.

It’s obviously easier said than done. But as a student, these skills become a part of basic survival. Anyone who has taken an upper division class can tell you that plainly. The closer to graduation, the more interpretation and application skills are demanded. A student has to be able to master these skills and still, that’s only part of it. After all, seeing what others overlook means nil if you don’t do something about it.

So naturally, as important as it is to think creatively, unique ideas are just driftwood without the hard work and effort required to see them through. After all, ideas aren’t endangered; there are plenty to go around. Determination is at the real heart of any personal success; we all can’t be blessed with that one miraculous idea that will put us in the history books.

Often this means going above what is expected, which is one form of creative thinking combined with extended effort.

In journalism, it often means hunting down every possible source, discovering every possible angle and reporting findings in a manner as simply as possible. Frankly, it’s a stress-inducing process. And for those of us who have adopted a sense of slacker fatalism birthed from whatever kind of personal background, it can be a huge obstacle to overcome.

Still, the results can be more than mildly rewarding. Sure, there’s the praise, adulation, a good grade or the hefty bonus. But perhaps most satisfying is you also get the intense pleasure of completing something worth your pride. Those things don’t come often. Relish them when they do.

Great ideas are not doughnuts on some obscure conveyor belt that, if found, can be snatched up, eaten, digested and defecated into pure gold. The seed begins as the ingested external stimuli that fly around us, the good and bad. An actual expressed idea is just a combination of the stimuli on the top of the proverbial dung heap, along with some serious hard work.

Or to paraphrase graphic designer Milton Glaser, life and personal expression can be boiled down to a series of influences. Be careful of what you eat then and know that even with a full stomach, you’re only halfway to success.

Paul Rios can be contacted at [email protected]