learned creativity?

i was in bed a few minutes ago wondering whether a person can learn to open her eyes. is it something one gets better at with practice? and i remembered something my sister said to me earlier and suddenly it made some sort of sense within me.

she said that even if i didn't have an ounce of creativity or talent within me, i am smart enough to fake it well enough to come out with something just as good or better than other people could. not her exact words, and i think we were talking about writing and i am transferring it to photography.

i think she may be right, i have always felt that although i am not at all original, i am a very good copier. by this i don't mean stealing people's work, i mean when i did love to draw as a child, i was always drawing faces from magazine ads. and in college i loved rewriting all of my friends essays even though it was painful to do my own. i think this allowed me to be enjoy my creativity and protected me from the feelings of embarrassment and failure that came from doing something original.

what it made me realize is that instead of worrying about whether i will ever be able to see the pictures i want to take, i should concentrate on learning to fake it. learning composition and color and studying artists who move me and learning what i like and don't like. and emulating what i like. and even if i can never get my eyes to truly open, maybe i can learn to create something that i am happy with.