Quite a while ago, a friend of mine from swimming asked me about something he had heard about me. Apparently, word had gotten out that I was big on writing, particularly essays. Since the statement was totally true, I assured him. He then proceeded to say the typical "Oh, so can you write my essay?" I responded as I usually do - no. Oh well, another lazy child's dream crushed.
This boy however, was different. Instead of just giving up on his hopes, he asked me more about my writing. I told him about my blog and about what I spend my free time doing. I suppose he thought it was cute, because he asked me to write an essay for him and post it on my blog. He didn't need to submit this essay, he just simply wanted to read it. I felt really happy. I was elated that someone actually cared, that someone actually wanted to read something I wrote.
I asked him what I should write the essay about. "What inspires you to write" he replied.
As per my usual fashion, I forgot all about this essay, until he brought it up again. A week or so later, this boy asked me if I was done the essay. I told him that I had forgot and that I was suffering from writer's block. He was understanding, but he kept bringing it up until I finally started writing. He cared about this essay so much that he wouldn't let me forget it.
I thought about it for a long time, actually. I wondered what helps me write all those critiques. One night, in my sleep, it came to me. What inspires me to write all those critiques is everything. Everything around me and how it makes me feel.
I came to this realization a few nights back. Now that school's out for March Break, I have a lot of spare time. Logically, I should be posting tons of posts daily. I'm not though, why? Because I lack inspiration.
Despite my skinny figure, and to many people's surprise, I am not an active person. I hate going outside and must be dragged, even on the nicest of days. Living in Vancouver provides no incentive either. Considering Vancouver weather consists of rain, rain and (you guessed it) more rain, I have even less motivation to exit the premises of my apartment. So when school's out, I don't do anything. I am idle. I sit on my fluffy brown couch, eat the food my mom stocks the refrigerator with, and after all that hard work is finished, I try and think of things to do (which never works out for me) so I end up sleeping, not because I'm tired, but because I'm bored. Basically, I am one big waster of oxygen. Imagine the good use that someone could put that air to! Actually, don't imagine it, just imagine me sleeping.
Occasionally, I try and think of doing something to keep myself awake, either the Insanity Fitness Program, which always ends in miserable failure, or I think to take to my blog. Now, I noticed that this taking to the blog wasn't coming to any fruition. I basically sat at my blog trying to push the useless lump of lard in my skull to write. It didn't want to write, though. The poor thing didn't know what to write about. I didn't know what to write about. Me, the girl whose lump of lard is usually running at a million miles per second with blog ideas, was now fighting to even keep running. I was brain dead.
I felt horrible. Here is this perfect opportunity to write - two weeks without school, without homework and without responsibility - I was missing out on this opportunity, I wasn't seizing the moment. The worst part of it all was not that I wasn't seizing the moment, but rather, that I was unable to seize the moment. I simply couldn't write about anything.
Before I began writing this blog, I thought that the notion of "Writer's Block" was a pathetic excuse for lazy writers. How could one not have inspiration? If your job is writing, then shouldn't you always have ideas running through your mind? How could you lack inspiration in your job? Jobs don't require inspiration, they require motivation, in many cases, motivation via pay check, right? Wrong. I realized that writing did need a muse. I realized that all those writer's, who were going to live in the South of France for six months at a time, were indeed going to break their writer's block, not just for a nice vacation. Salvador Dali, arguably the most creative painter of all time, called Perpignan (a town in Provence) "the centre of the universe" because he drew so much of his inspiration from sitting in the local train station.
Writer's need inspiration. It can come in many different forms of course. For some, sitting idly at home is the perfect inspiration to write a masterpiece, for others, they must go see the world. I've learned that I must travel. Not far, luckily. I've learnt that my morning commute, from downtown to UBC, is more than enough inspiration. The simple lunch break hour at my school, is enough. Some of my best critiques have come from sitting and observing children over break. I know now that to make any sort of writing happen for me, I must observe people. Creepy, eh? Can you picture me, perched on the roof of a tall building, with binoculars, watching you leave for work in the morning? Okay, maybe that went too far.
Honestly, I can't do anything when sitting at home. I can barely bring myself to brush my teeth in the morning, let alone to write a whole blog post. It really sucks for me. ("Hate" is a strong word, and should be used with caution) I hate school, I hate going to school, I hate waking up early for school, I hate waiting for the bus in the rain, I hate waiting for the bus in any weather, I hate seeing the bus driver each morning because he's either too happy or too douchey, I hate opening the door of my school, I hate opening my locker to put my things in, I hate entering my classrooms, I hate having to bring supplies to the classroom, I hate looking at my teachers, I hate listening to my teachers speak, I hate the fact that the teachers think their so smart, I hate calling my teachers Mr./Ms., I hate not being able to sleep in class, I hate having to do tedious tasks of meaningless homework, I hate having to carry a binder and a bag on my back everyday, I hate looking at the children in my school, I hate hearing the sounds of their generally shrill voices, I hate hearing the grade 8s acting out and screaming as if they've just seen Justing Bieber, I hate seeing the grade 8s frail, little, un-pubertized bodies, I hate seeing the grade 9s with their high libidos and daily, different, meaningless girlfriends/boyfriends, I hate the modern architecture of my school, I hate the fact that the children in my school are, for the most part, physically challenged, I hate the fact that so many children in my PE class can't catch a ball, I hate the fact that most of the children in my grade have huge aspirations, I hate that they put so much emphasis on their grades, I hate the fact that the seniors try and organize stupid events to bring out school spirit and I dislike the fact that our school has half lockers, instead of full ones. But I've realized that for the small (and big things) in my life that I do like, (like, the people whose lockers are within a 5 locker radius of mine, and writing my blog) I have to go to school. If I want to write my blog, I, unfortunately, have to get out there.
What sucks is that, when I do have inspiration all around me, I have homework (not that I do it, but I have it), when I have free time, I don't have inspiration. Ideally, I would go to school and never have homework.
So, to sum up what inspires me: Everything does, everything that I see, especially people that are different. Those people inspire me, they make me write. I don't need to go to the South of France, or Hawaii, or any number of other exotic places, to be able to write. I just need to step outside onto the very regular, very lame, very rainy doorstep of Vancouver. I need to, not necessarily overcome my hatred of everything school related, just come to terms with it and express it onto my blog. Writer's Block: The Struggle is Real. Writer's block is real, but luckily for me, as long as I don't fall asleep, it can be overcome.
I came to this realization a few nights back. Now that school's out for March Break, I have a lot of spare time. Logically, I should be posting tons of posts daily. I'm not though, why? Because I lack inspiration.
Despite my skinny figure, and to many people's surprise, I am not an active person. I hate going outside and must be dragged, even on the nicest of days. Living in Vancouver provides no incentive either. Considering Vancouver weather consists of rain, rain and (you guessed it) more rain, I have even less motivation to exit the premises of my apartment. So when school's out, I don't do anything. I am idle. I sit on my fluffy brown couch, eat the food my mom stocks the refrigerator with, and after all that hard work is finished, I try and think of things to do (which never works out for me) so I end up sleeping, not because I'm tired, but because I'm bored. Basically, I am one big waster of oxygen. Imagine the good use that someone could put that air to! Actually, don't imagine it, just imagine me sleeping.
Occasionally, I try and think of doing something to keep myself awake, either the Insanity Fitness Program, which always ends in miserable failure, or I think to take to my blog. Now, I noticed that this taking to the blog wasn't coming to any fruition. I basically sat at my blog trying to push the useless lump of lard in my skull to write. It didn't want to write, though. The poor thing didn't know what to write about. I didn't know what to write about. Me, the girl whose lump of lard is usually running at a million miles per second with blog ideas, was now fighting to even keep running. I was brain dead.
I felt horrible. Here is this perfect opportunity to write - two weeks without school, without homework and without responsibility - I was missing out on this opportunity, I wasn't seizing the moment. The worst part of it all was not that I wasn't seizing the moment, but rather, that I was unable to seize the moment. I simply couldn't write about anything.
Before I began writing this blog, I thought that the notion of "Writer's Block" was a pathetic excuse for lazy writers. How could one not have inspiration? If your job is writing, then shouldn't you always have ideas running through your mind? How could you lack inspiration in your job? Jobs don't require inspiration, they require motivation, in many cases, motivation via pay check, right? Wrong. I realized that writing did need a muse. I realized that all those writer's, who were going to live in the South of France for six months at a time, were indeed going to break their writer's block, not just for a nice vacation. Salvador Dali, arguably the most creative painter of all time, called Perpignan (a town in Provence) "the centre of the universe" because he drew so much of his inspiration from sitting in the local train station.
Writer's need inspiration. It can come in many different forms of course. For some, sitting idly at home is the perfect inspiration to write a masterpiece, for others, they must go see the world. I've learned that I must travel. Not far, luckily. I've learnt that my morning commute, from downtown to UBC, is more than enough inspiration. The simple lunch break hour at my school, is enough. Some of my best critiques have come from sitting and observing children over break. I know now that to make any sort of writing happen for me, I must observe people. Creepy, eh? Can you picture me, perched on the roof of a tall building, with binoculars, watching you leave for work in the morning? Okay, maybe that went too far.
Honestly, I can't do anything when sitting at home. I can barely bring myself to brush my teeth in the morning, let alone to write a whole blog post. It really sucks for me. ("Hate" is a strong word, and should be used with caution) I hate school, I hate going to school, I hate waking up early for school, I hate waiting for the bus in the rain, I hate waiting for the bus in any weather, I hate seeing the bus driver each morning because he's either too happy or too douchey, I hate opening the door of my school, I hate opening my locker to put my things in, I hate entering my classrooms, I hate having to bring supplies to the classroom, I hate looking at my teachers, I hate listening to my teachers speak, I hate the fact that the teachers think their so smart, I hate calling my teachers Mr./Ms., I hate not being able to sleep in class, I hate having to do tedious tasks of meaningless homework, I hate having to carry a binder and a bag on my back everyday, I hate looking at the children in my school, I hate hearing the sounds of their generally shrill voices, I hate hearing the grade 8s acting out and screaming as if they've just seen Justing Bieber, I hate seeing the grade 8s frail, little, un-pubertized bodies, I hate seeing the grade 9s with their high libidos and daily, different, meaningless girlfriends/boyfriends, I hate the modern architecture of my school, I hate the fact that the children in my school are, for the most part, physically challenged, I hate the fact that so many children in my PE class can't catch a ball, I hate the fact that most of the children in my grade have huge aspirations, I hate that they put so much emphasis on their grades, I hate the fact that the seniors try and organize stupid events to bring out school spirit and I dislike the fact that our school has half lockers, instead of full ones. But I've realized that for the small (and big things) in my life that I do like, (like, the people whose lockers are within a 5 locker radius of mine, and writing my blog) I have to go to school. If I want to write my blog, I, unfortunately, have to get out there.
What sucks is that, when I do have inspiration all around me, I have homework (not that I do it, but I have it), when I have free time, I don't have inspiration. Ideally, I would go to school and never have homework.
So, to sum up what inspires me: Everything does, everything that I see, especially people that are different. Those people inspire me, they make me write. I don't need to go to the South of France, or Hawaii, or any number of other exotic places, to be able to write. I just need to step outside onto the very regular, very lame, very rainy doorstep of Vancouver. I need to, not necessarily overcome my hatred of everything school related, just come to terms with it and express it onto my blog. Writer's Block: The Struggle is Real. Writer's block is real, but luckily for me, as long as I don't fall asleep, it can be overcome.
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