INSPIRATION: Chasing Inspiration

What is inspiration? I lay on my back, looking up to the sky, watching tree branches sway against the blue – still no ideas for that essay. Browse on the internet, trawling for motivation – an hour has disappeared but no words have appeared on the paper. How did JK ever get through her first page, let alone find 7 books out of her head?

Intangible and inconsistent inspiration has deserted me as my deadline looms nearer. Watching a movie or two seems a good plan – plenty of creative ideas there, a few more hours tick by. Listen to our passionate teachers, always ready to help. ‘Your time is passing by, much faster than you know – do you realise how many hours are left before those great exams? Run home as fast as you can and start revising now!’

I can feel the panic rising, my heart is beating fast – the headache is beginning and I have no idea where to start. As my breath starts coming short and fast, I feel my duvet beckon, I’m sure a rest would help. Another day gone, I start to write, words begin to tumble out – no more time to wait for the inspiration fairy to strike!

INSPIRATION: A painting

I chose to paint this as my creative piece for the theme of inspiration as the picture itself represented such movement and determination that putting it out on a piece of paper with paints would be a real challenge.

Also, it was a horse and horses are inspirational animals.

INSPIRATION: Tennis

You can find the inspiration to be better in many things, for instance, athletes who achieve incredible performances through sheer determination really inspire me to push myself.

Tennis players are my heroes. Every day they have to make huge sacrifices. They spend hours training and exercising. Not only do they spend hours on the court, they also have to run and go to the gym. They have very little time to relax, hang out with friends or family or study (if they are still at school).

When tennis players play matches, they try, no matter what, to play to the best of their ability. Even when their bones and muscles ache, they are completely drained, it is very hot and they are drenched in sweat and they are losing by a significant amount, they still put up a fight to win against all odds.

For instance, in the 2013 Wimbledon final Andy Murray beat Novak Djokovic. Although it was boiling hot he still fought through till the end. In the third set it was most impressive. He was losing 4-2, yet he really pushed himself and won 6-4 wining him the title. At the end of a grueling 3 hour and 10 minute match, Andy Murray still found some energy inside of him and climbed up into his family and friends box to celebrate with every one.

This really inspires me to do the best I can even when all odds are against me and I am exhausted. 

INSPIRATION: Testing Tumour

My friend Jessica Cohen is my inspiration. She goes to JCOSS secondary school and is eleven years old.  Let me tell you why I think she is inspirational:

Last summer, Jessica found out that she had a tumour on her spine.  A few months before this, she had started getting pain in her legs and back but mostly her legs.  This made her feel, in her words, “upset and frustrated because my legs were sore and I couldn’t do things I enjoyed like swimming”.  The pain stopped her from getting to sleep sometimes therefore it seemed that it was starting to become a problem for Jessica.  So she went to her doctor who thought it must have been a sprain or something like that.  She was told to do some daily exercises and to go to the physiotherapist but this caused her a lot of pain as well.  After a while she was taken to a children’s spine specialist who said that she should have an MRI scan.  The MRI scan showed something fuzzy on her spine – it was a tumour.  Jessica spent two weeks in hospital, first at The Royal Free and after that, she moved to Great Ormond Street Hospital where she found out she was in need of an operation.  When she found out that she had to have an operation she felt excited for the pain to be over however as the operation got nearer, Jessica started to feel nervous, stressed and scared.

The operation lasted for four or five hours and was a success.  After the operation, she woke up to see her parents who had bought her two new t-shirts which she loved!  She was not in too much pain but felt uncomfortable due to the big scar on her spine.  Jessica felt relieved that the operation was over but stressed at the same time because she had missed her school play at her primary school; Akiva.  She missed roughly three weeks of school and badly missed all of her friends although they often came to visit and cheered her up by bringing sushi!

About five days after the operation, Jessica could start walking again!

As if this had not been hard enough for Jessica and her family, at the same time her grandpa was seriously ill due to heart failure although he had been ill for a long time.  Shortly after her operation, Jessica’s grandpa sadly passed away. Jessica felt really sad when her grandpa died and really misses him but she was expecting it because he had been ill for a prolonged period of time.   

Before her operation, Jessica and her family had been planning to climb Skafell Pike in the Lake District to raise money for the hospice where her grandpa had been staying. Even though Jessica could not do that climb after her operation she still wanted to raise money for this cause that meant a lot to her and her family.  So instead, seven weeks after her operation, she climbed four local hills with her mum, dad, brother, cousins and grandma (the wife of her grandpa). Jessica did extremely well but at some points, her spine started to become a little bit sore and tired.   She raised over £10,000 thanks to all the donations she received! All of this money went to Saint Luke’s Hospice, the place where her grandpa had been living.

Jessica and her family were featured in three different newspapers; Harrow Observer, Harrow Times and Kilburn Times. During this incident, Jessica was unable to play sports or run around but fortunately she is back to normal and happily playing netball in school once again!  In the future Jessica said that she will do lots of things like this because she loves to raise money for charity!

INSPIRATION: Inspiration Vs Motivation

I was speaking with my Mother about this assignment - to write a report or to create a visual document about the word or concept ‘inspiration.’  I put this off and put this off.  I really did not want to write a report.  And I had no idea what to write about.  Mum asked me why I was not inspired and why I was not motivated.  Her question got me thinking…

What is inspiration and what is motivation?

I have learned that often people confuse the concepts of inspiration and motivation and often use one word for another.  There are, I learned, distinct differences and yet they are intrinsically related.

Motivation is usually short-term and task-oriented.  Motivation is the process of getting started.  The root of motivation is ‘motive’ – a reason for doing something.

The motivation, or reason, for me to write this report is so I can check it off my to-do list (thanks Mum) or to have it published in the school blog.  If this report was for an actual class, my motivation would be to get a good grade.  If this report was a part of my weekly house chores, I would write it in order to receive my allowance.  Motivation is considered external.  It can fade.

Inspiration, on the other hand, is internal.  Inspiration - ‘in spirit’.  This is a feeling that comes from within, in the very core of your being.

Inspiration is long-term and goal-oriented.  Perhaps filling you with the need to ‘make a difference’, filling you with a passion to do something.  Inspiration is more lasting.

Books can inspire.  Cinema, music, art and people can all inspire.  These feelings or experiences can touch you to the core and connect with you to make you think or dream perhaps differently.  In colour.  Maybe making you think ‘I can do that’ or even ‘I can do that better’.

If motivation is when you get hold of an idea and do it, then inspiration is when an idea gets hold of you!

Motivation is something that moves you from the outside, an external force - a grade, a promotion, a reward.  Inspiration is something you feel on the inside, deep within, that drives you forward, often ever-lasting.

You do not have to be inspired to be motivated, but it helps.  I sat down to write this because I was inspired when I came up with this theme.  My motivation was that now Mum is off my back!

INSPIRATION: Edinburgh Fringe

Anyone looking for inspiration in the summer holiday would do well to consider a visit to the Edinburgh Fringe.  Here you will find a huge choice of theatre, music and comedy.  You will also encounter exhibitions, street acts, a separate programme for children and a Book Festival.  There really is something for everyone.

I’ve been twice and I think it’s great.  Where else would you bump into Jacqueline Wilson in the loo just after you’ve stepped off the not-so-glamorous Easyjet flight from Luton?  Where else would you find yourself so close to Eddie Izzard that you can see his amazing multi-coloured nail polish?  And where else would you find yourself at the end of a very long queue standing next to Andrew Marr?  However, the Edinburgh experience is not just about name dropping.  Part of the fun is in running from one venue to the next and never quite knowing if the performance will be astonishingly brilliant or utter rubbish.  This summer I saw a performance by an acappella group called Voca People.  Now I should say that most of the acappella at Edinburgh is very samey.  It tends to consist of groups of university students or recent graduates hoping to be spotted by an agent and whisked off to fame and fortune.   These groups often have `Oxford’ in their title or have names like Out of the Blue.  Voca People was different.  Dressed head to toe in white morph like outfits and with their faces painted white, they looked like aliens.  Their voices, though, were incredible.  They had the capacity to make their voices sound like any and every musical instrument.  They also used highly original choreography which cleverly succeeded in injecting humour into their performance.  They were a slick and polished outfit and I’m genuinely surprised that they seem to have disappeared without trace since their Edinburgh triumph.

Some of the acts seem to come back year after year.  The first time I went I was really keen to see the so-called Amazing Bubble Show.  The Bubble Man has apparently been coming to Edinburgh for at least eight years.  The show was advertised as being for `eight to eighty years old’.  Let’s just say there were rather more school children than octogenarians in the audience!  The Bubble Man had a sophisticated sense of humour which was just as well because otherwise he might have had a theatre full of tantruming parents on his hands.  This year I saw the Bubble Man in the street in Edinburgh.  Obviously, this encounter cannot be compared to the celebrities mentioned above but it does show that you cannot stray far in Edinburgh in August without bumping into someone at least partially famous. 

When you tire of the live acts and street theatre you can seek some literary inspiration from the Edinburgh Book Festival.  The enormous tented area which houses this Festival is an oasis of everything literary amid the bustle of the Fringe. Grab a coffee and a deckchair and, if it isn’t raining, you can sit back and enjoy the latest offering from Margaret Atwood or Salman Rushdie.  Then, feeling intellectually fortified and perhaps a bit smug, you can venture back out onto the streets of Edinburgh for some serious retail therapy.          

INSPIRATION: My Musical Influences

Music plays a huge part in my life inside and outside of school. The main reason that I am inspired to learn how to play new instruments or pieces or to write in or listen to new and interesting styles of music is because of the musicians and pieces that have had an impact on my tastes and interests. I would like to talk about a few of those influences in this article.

Michael Brecker – For as long as I can remember, I have loved the saxophone; and whilst Brecker was not the first saxophonist I came across, he was certainly the best and most inspiring. Michael Brecker was a tenor saxophonist who played post-bop jazz music. Not only was he one of the best tenor players ever to have lived, but he was so passionate about his music that he continued to play live concerts even after experiencing a herniated larynx (he blew out the muscles in his neck from playing too strongly and had to play with a neck brace) and being diagnosed with leukaemia. Brecker died in 2007 at the age of 57 due to his leukaemia, but his music and his attitudes towards it continue to have a profound effect on me.

Recommended tracks: Some Skunk Funk – Live and Delta City Blues

Chris Thile – Aside from being a virtuosic mandolin player, Chris Thile is on this list because of his ideas regarding genre. Despite coming from a background in playing traditional Bluegrass (American folk music), he listened to a huge range of musical genres and came to the conclusion that the boundaries of genre would one day become obsolete. This idea is particularly inspiring for me as the styles of music that I really enjoy are so far apart that one would never associate one with another. Thile’s music, particularly with his band – Punch Brothers – blends ideas from multiple genres to make some of the most exciting music I have ever listened to.

YouTube search “Chris Thile Genre Hopping” for a summary of his ideas.
Recommended tracks: Movement and Location and Soon or Never

James Newton Howard – I love film music. Pieces written to accompany motion pictures are some of the most interesting I have ever listened to. This is because they have to change and warp around what is happening on screen. For me, the person who is best at writing music like this is James Newton Howard. The range of different genres and styles of music he is able to compose in is incredible. From the dark, brooding feel of the Dark Knight soundtrack, to the jazzy, laid back sounds of Glengarry Gen Ross, to the driving, upbeat Dinosaur soundtrack. The score that is particularly special for me is the soundtrack for Disney’s Treasure Planet. This is the soundtrack to my childhood and is the first film I can remember seeing where the music really stood out to me.

Recommended tracks: Jim Saves the Crew and Silver Leaves

Jamie Cullum – Until I was about 12, I had always been introduced to musicians and groups by either my father or my sister. In 2010, I happened to see Jamie Cullum performing his song I’m All Over It on television. From there I was hooked. This was the first time I had discovered a musician by myself and I’m so glad I did. I didn’t just gain a couple of great new albums to listen to, but I was inspired to start finding more and more music by myself. For this reason (in addition to the fact that I love his music) Jamie Cullum will always be my favourite musician and my biggest musical influence. Cullum’s songs were incredibly accessible and managed to introduce me to jazz in a way that no other artist had been able to. They were also the first songs that I really wanted to learn to play. It’s been four years since I learned of the existence of Jamie Cullum, and since then I have only grown to enjoy his music even more.

Recommended tracks: All at Sea, Pointless Nostalgic and I’m All Over It

There are plenty more people who have inspired my playing and influenced my taste in music, but those mentioned above have had the biggest impact. It’s the music and ideas of these people that can inspire creativity and new interest in people everywhere and I hope that they do for years to come.

Honourable Mentions: Gerry Rafferty, Newton Faulkner, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer.

INSPIRATION: A Sonnet

Inspired I am when the bird sings gracefully
solitarily locked up in his cage.

Inspired I am when the bear leaves men be
as he sits there, not letting out his rage.

Inspiration is what shapes our future
it’s what guides us through every single day

It tells us what we want to be sooner
and teaches us what to do and to say

When I see someone performing a good deed
such as giving charity for a good cause

I get inspired myself to plant the seed
and get the rescue cat back on its paws.

What is meant to be will always find its way
if you learn from good; the bad won’t have its say.

INSPIRED: Being Uninspired

Autumn is now in full mode and winter is coming. We are re-introduced to the warmth of our favourite sweaters and waking up to the sound of rain. For many the approaching end of the year is a time when inspiration reaches its peak as we set goals for the New Year ahead.

However you could argue the opposite for most students. Taking upon this task I didn’t expect it to be this challenging, but my mind kept drifting to my never-ending to-do list. Frankly the mere sight of clouds racing in the sky became a reminder of exams and controlled assessments that are lurking around the corner. As I dug around internet websites in search for an inspirational topic to write about, I found it took away the excitement and turned it into another piece of homework. In today’s world writing for many students is a set of rules, structures and guidelines that turn into a grade, so having this freedom created a form of chaos in my mind. I became so focused on finding inspiration soon enough I became uninspired.  And being uninspired, in a way inspired me to write.

I believe that inspiration is not something that can be achieved or possessed at a certain date or hour.

In our modern age we all forget to notice what makes us inspired, we ignore the leaves falling off of trees, with our eyes locked on our phone screens. Yet once you chose to take a step back and see the world around you as the leaves turn yellow,  everything slows down.  You see people, yawning more, desperately trying to snuggle into their sweaters and scarves to find that warmth they’ve been missing since they woke up. One can become inspired by almost anything. Even the mundane and typically uninspiring Autumn days, when most of us would rather cancel the day, can hold inspiration if you’re wanting to find some. Inspiration is a powerful tool, however only if you are willing to spend time with it.

INSPIRATION: Table Tennis

Being inspired by someone or something is truly remarkable; it shows how amazing it is that anything can have an effect on you. Inspiration is highly positive and it enables one another to have self-belief and motivation to pursue a potential future talent or attribute or even a career for oneself to have. 

A lot of people and things inspire me, but my main inspiration comes from the exceedingly unique sport of table tennis. The main requirements that a good table tennis player needs is to be fit, athletic, intelligence and to have good tactics. Table tennis is an intense, fast, thrilling and a skilful sport. It’s amazing to see that all the professionals excel in all these things.

I started to get involved in the sport three years ago by just watching videos of the experts playing. I was very impressed with the unbelievable rallies that went on and I said to myself, ‘I want to be able to do that’.

At that time, I never really had any of the specific attributes, but now I do. I have played in many tournaments and I play for Maccabi in a Middlesex league. Additionally, I play nationally and I represented Great Britain in the JCC games where I picked up some medals. In the near future I aspire to get even better.

Whenever the professionals are in a situation where they are 10-9 down and match point to the opponent, I find it extremely impressive to see how the players deal with the increasing pressure and it is amazing that they don’t let it affect them because they continue to play to their strengths and attack boldly instead of backing away from the table which would result in nervous and cautious play allowing the other player to seize upon the opportunity to take the game. 

 
Every time I play and train I feel like I have accomplished something promising which inspires me to play more and do better.