When I was young, I had an “active imagination.”  It plunged me into the details of everything I saw and made me feel different from others around me. I felt adults’ impatience with my relentless questions and misplaced attention. They told me I was missing the forest for the trees, the obvious point. Later, I was diagnosed with learning differences that impair my ability to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant information. I found solace in art, not as an escape but as a tool to extract real meaning and careful nuance from a sea of narratives. I employed imagery, font, color, and composition to reconstruct and convey the central themes of complex concepts. I labored over visual guides to classroom material and was surprised to discover this strategy not only supported my own learning but also allowed me to distill and communicate expansive ideas to others.