Where do you draw the most inspiration from?
Recently someone asked me, “Where do you draw the most inspiration from?” After a lot of thought, this is what I came up with:
My “creative” inspiration is driven from a need to express myself more than anything, and writing happens to be the best and easiest way for me to do so. As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been a writer. Whether it was letters of support, and comfort, to uplift my family serving overseas or just expressing how I felt about the girl on the other side of class through a poem in my younger days. My mind can get clouded with all these thoughts and in order for me to gain clarity, i write. Once i write it all out all that emotion, concern, questioning, etc. lives within that piece…hopefully that makes sense — I’m not saying once i write it out, i forget about it but rather it helps me put things in perspective..literally.
As far as my “non-creative” endeavors, I was told a long time ago that whatever I hate/despise the most is what I’m most passionate about. So from the quality of our education system (elementary and high school especially), to the music industry and the art of making music itself — especially because of bad personal experiences/reasons with my own education — I felt a need for change in those institutions. If i really wanted those changes to occur, I would have to get up and do something about it. That lead to my work in student affairs, working with first generation college students, resource students (like myself), and working in inner city schools.
so really, it depends on which light you’ve seen or met me in in order for me to give the appropriate answer for this question.