Playing is an essential part of everyone’s life. Children learn and develop their skills from playing; they play almost all the time. As adults, we sometimes forget the simple joy we play with. In my culture, if an adult is still playing, it somehow means that person is not mature enough. However, after leading this week’s art project, I think we can still learn something from playing and enjoy our simple joy in the community.

In last week’s Common Art project, we started making origami models. Participant Mr. K proposed making frogs together. Inspired by him, we pursued this wonderful idea in our community. Creating frogs had a greater impact than I had thought possible. People made frogs, played with them, saw which frog could jump highest, shared laughs, and simply enjoyed the moment. Some people radiated such joy that others saw how to have fun with art.

After the end of Wednesday, I couldn’t stop thinking about our happiness together. Making origami is not that easy.  We must learn how to make it, so probably some frogs cannot jump as high as others. We tried our best to make the folded paper become a frog, and we dealt with frustration when we folded something wrong.

This frog-origami project reminds me that I need to crouch down (that is, prepare more) to jump before jumping to a height I expect. It’s time-consuming but necessary. As we help and teach others to make origami, we see how art can really connect people. It can be simple, fun, and sometimes even a little bit silly, but it helps people share joy across a language barrier, cultural differences, and an age gap. In playing like a kid, we can simply be present as a group.

–Wanyi Huang