Inspiration

Inspiration comes in many forms, some people find inspiration in nature, and they might take that inspiration and turn it into a painting or a picture. Some artists will spend their entire lives behind the lens of a camera, although they are not creating technically in the real-world they are creating a beautiful object in terms of the art through their eyes. Inspiration in my life has come to me in so many forms and I want to inspire more young people to allow that inspiration to become something. I don’t want it to become something that sits idly by while their lives pass before them

During this last summer my family spent a week playing around in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey.  While splashing around with my girls in the lake just having fun time, I found at the bottom of the lake and old bronze handle. It felt different than what was in the surrounding area which was mostly rocks and a few water plants. I grabbed it, pulled it up out of the water. It was really heavy and I realize that this thing, at that moment was going to become something great for me but I had no idea what.  Just knowing that that handle was going to become some form of inspiration was exciting and exhilarating. I got all sorts of ideas, a flood of information into my brain about what I could possibly do with the handle. I let that moment go, I put the handle up on the concrete dock next to where we were swimming and continued to play with my children.  The best part about this was that I fully knew that later on that the handle would become the inspiration for something great it would allow me to create something brand new from nothing just because it was there simply because I found it and it became part of my life. 

Inspiration exploration and been able and willing to be creative is something that is endearing to human nature.  We need to allow and even encourage that exploration in our young children.  And I’m not talking about just young children but children of all ages including the young adults in middle school and high school.  I’m always brought back to a story that caught my interest several years ago about when Thomas Edison figured out with the light bulb that Tungsten was a great conveyor of his electricity into light but to get Tungsten into wire was something that was not attainable at that time.  Edison decided to go to several people and ask if they could make him some Tungsten wires many people laughed and said that Tungsten was too brittle can never be turned into a wire. Edison was not to be foiled so he found a young man fresh out of college, who didn’t have any preconceived notions of what can and can’t be done this young man took several weeks and came out with the wire that Edison needed.  This story always brings be great inspiration because it reminds us that as long as we’re not stopped, as long as we are not trapped or contained by a preconceived notion we can do anything.  I try to impart this to my students and tell them all the time there’s nothing that is impossible, that there are things that are improbable, things that are hard, things that will take much more time and effort however there is nothing that is ultimately impossible as long as you believe that there is nothing impossible.

Inspiration should come in all shapes and sizes informs of the one thing we should never do is create preconceived constraints for our students or our young, we need to make sure that we need the world open for them so that they can ultimately make it a better place for all of us.

So go outside go discover, go to your shops be inspired find something, make something it is ultimately by making not only will you make yourself feel better than you’ve ever felt before, but you never know when your creation will inspires somebody else.