at the arcade

I’m a little late to the game here, but I recently saw the short film Caine’s Arcade. It’s one of those stories where you just can’t help but smile and feel better about the world after hearing it.

The film focuses on Caine Monroy, a nine-year-old who built an arcade out of cardboard in his dad’s used auto parts shop. Despite his amazing ingenuity and clever construction, Caine couldn’t get any customers until the last day of summer when a filmmaker came in by chance and gave the arcade a try.

You can watch the full story here:

Caine’s Arcade

There’s a few things that stood out to me from this:

First, Caine was no less creative, and his work no less impressive, before he had customers to enjoy it. The lack of recognition did not minimize the creativity. Even so, he found much more fulfillment and satisfaction, as did so many others, after his work was seen and experienced.

That’s standard proceedure when it comes to creativity: it can feel like you’re a failure and your work is meaningless if no one appreciates it, but that’s simply not the case. However, the creative work is not complete (and the creator not fully satisfied) until it is shared with others. Creativity is a wonderful thing in itself, but it’s also meant to be shared.

Second, without even trying to be, Caine ended up as a huge inspiration to many others. He began by simply working hard on something he loved without even the faintest idea of where it would lead. 

Speaking personally, when I begin something with the goal to change the world, I set myself up for disappointment. But when I work to simply make something I’m passionate about with all the creative ability I can muster, things tend to go a whole lot better, regardless of where it leads.

As a person who also enjoys making something fun for others out of spare cardboard, I’m inspired by Caine’s story. As the little project of a nine-year-old boy in East LA continues to help kids around the world on their own creative journeys, I hope it also inspires you to take something you love and share it with the people around you.