I’m Leanna and I’m taking over Alex’s blog as part of this month’s edition of Bloggerstock!  For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Bloggerstock is a new and innovative type of blog swap.  Instead of two bloggers swapping posts for a day, Bloggerstock forms a chain of blog posts.  Keep clicking through all the posts to read them all!  Head on over to my blog OMG I moved to NYC to read Emily’s thoughts on the topic or to Pearl Tigress to read Alex’s.

This month’s theme is “What Inspires You”.  When I read this topic only one thing came to mind, my college professor Michele Clark.

I’ve always looked up at Michele for her efforts to combat Human Trafficking, her work at the OSCE, and her commitment to her students.  She always encouraged us to explore our academic interests and provided excellent advice for our papers, internships, or our crazy stressful college lives.  Most importantly, she supported whatever we wanted to do.  When Gaby and I took over the leadership of our campus’s anti-human trafficking group she was behind us 100% and connected us with a lot of great anti-trafficking organizations in DC and provided us with guest speakers for our events.  When I had the crazy idea of moving to NYC to work at an international exchange focused non-profit, she told me to go for it.  I only knew 2-3 people in the whole city, didn’t have a place to live, and had never spent longer than 3 days in the NYC before…I was terrified but I wanted to be here.  Michele helped calm my fears and while other people thought I was crazy told me to do what would make me happy.  So thank you Michele for inspiring me to take the leap and move to this amazing city!

Why is it that sometimes you think that you have a great idea, a thought for a post that couldn’t be better, but when you sit down to try to put the words on the page, it just doesn’t feel the same?  I know that everyone feels that sometimes.  I wouldn’t so much call it writer’s block as much as it is just the possible lack of flesh on the original concept.  I don’t even actually remember what it was that I had thought was such a good idea to write about, but as soon as I opened the page to start writing it just didn’t seem as worthwhile anymore.

Sometimes there are ideas that really just flow from the brain through the fingers and onto the page.  Other times they seem to need a little coaxing.  Every now and then they don’t really want to come at all.  It is strange though, that many of the times that words just flow is when you least intend for that to happen.  It is like getting in the zone, you have to see where things take you.

Inspiration can certainly come in many forms and at any time.  I am sure that when I take the time to actually put pen to paper this summer and write some real letters to people, words will come.  I do think though, that there is something magical about real mail that you don’t get from email, IM’s or blogs.  I also think that there is something about the physicality of actually writing (which I think is becoming a dying art) that makes it very conducive for creative juices to get going.

I suppose the other thing that I could take into account is the fact that I am up way past my bedtime and the past days have been very long.  The days will only get longer though as the summer progresses.  It seems that all the good ideas come lat at night though.  Not the best combination of events when you spend a summer at camp.  Could be a lot worse though.  When you think about it, how many people do you know who will write something about not writing something and actually make it a post you can ponder?

In the end, what does it boil down to?  Could be a post on nothing….