Here it goes

Being inspired by what other people are saying is sometimes a bit overwhelming. I am a creature of habit. I rarely switch up my routines. But every so often someone says something, or writes something, or draws something, or films something, and I am suddenly consumed with wanting to produce something beautiful of my own. Something worth other people's time, something that takes me out of my daily to-do's and puts me in front of those people I admire.

I get this from my dad. When I was young and my older brother was still young enough to be at home and do stuff with us, we saw Pittsburgh's production of The Nutcracker, and my dad was so inspired by the dancers that he started taking tap classes. My brother, too, was interested, and he and my dad took several lessons with a woman in our town who used to dance with Gene Kelly. Having never taken formal dance lessons before, but being naturally artistic and adept at developing their creative abilities, both were discouraged when they realized they would likely never become as fabulous a dancer as those in Tchaikovsky's ballet.

And I do the same. I have some artistic tendencies. I pick up instruments easily and play music regularly and doodle and surprise my niece and nephew with portraits of their favorite people and animals. But I'm never consumed by an artistic drive. My tendency is to be more scientific than creative. I'm a terrible cook (necessitating creativity and ingenuity), but a splendid baker (reliant on accuracy and following instructions). I can copy an image from a picture, but pulling an image out of my memory or out of my imagination never looks as good or as beautiful as I want it to look.

But those that inspire me make me want to accept my weaknesses as a creative person, and learn to expand on what I know, on what I'm good at doing. Books, movies, paintings, photographs, bloggers, friends, etc.etc.etc! So I'm starting this now, and when I really think about it, it's kind of a resolution, although I didn't plan to have any resolutions, this just sort of popped up. I think it is important to look into ourselves and figure out why we think how we think, why we do what we do: those pieces of us that are so obvious to other people, but that we never really consider or admire in ourselves.

I also have 2 weeks until my semester starts again, and I know I'm just going to sit on my bum and watch Parks & Recreation until classes start, so it is a better idea to go out and do things and photograph them and write about them and think about them.