Nicholas Binge, Writer, CHA 2008
Nicholas Binge
La Châtaigneraie, 2008
Writer
Scotland
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To me, creativity is all about finding links between things: people, emotions, concepts. There was a 'renaissance' quality to my Ecolint education that I quickly realised many others didn't have when I went to university.
I live in Edinburgh with my wife, two kids, and our dog River. Most of my time is either devoted to working on my next book or travelling for events and publicity for novels that are already out. I do some part-time lecturing in creative writing at Edinburgh Napier University to keep myself regularly interacting with new and aspiring writers, and in my spare time, I love going for long walks and playing intensely nerdy hours-long tabletop roleplaying games with good friends.
Too many memories of Ecolint to name. From fond memories of Friday nights with friends at Post Cafe to travelling to Ghana as part of a student team on climate and sustainability. The fondest are probably of Chât Fest, our school community music festival, and of the Kermesse, where I used to perform with my punk band “Quasar the Lasermen” and my metal band “Thundertone”.
One of my favourite things about doing the IB at Chât was how it let me keep broad interests. I'm fascinated by so many things, and while other curriculums would have forced me to specialise early, I was able to take disparate subjects like Maths and Theatre at HL and find the intersections between them. To me, creativity is all about finding links between things: people, emotions, concepts. There was a 'renaissance' quality to my Ecolint education that I quickly realised many others didn't have when I went to university.
If I had to do it again, I would take more risks. Stress about the future less. Realise the freedom and the opportunity that I had and take full advantage of it, creatively, personally, and emotionally.
My words of wisdom to students: when you leave Ecolint you will meet all sorts of strange and wondrous people with such different backgrounds to you, it will be a struggle to understand at first. Don't compare yourself to them. Don't try to want the things that they want, or be the things that they want to be. Don't let people tell you what you should be. Work out what you want, whatever it is, and pursue that with as much enthusiasm as you possibly can.
I'm not sure I really think a lot about legacy. I'd like for people to be reading my work in decades time and still feel connected to it. Storytelling is what brings humanity together, and if I've helped contribute a little to that, that's enough for me.