♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦
Topic #92
What Inspires You? And why do those things inspire you?
Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Be prepared to become a regular reader.
Learning.
That’s it.
I am inspired when I am learning something. This is not to be confused with being excited—or, thrilled. There are plenty of works of art (musical, poetical, visual) that get my blood circulating. Inspiration is more about getting the wheels in my head grinding. The two can cross paths when, for instance, I am learning a new song, or meeting new poetry, seeing new art. In those moments, the thrilling feelings that get my circulation up increase the speed of the wheels set to grinding.
More importantly, you are probably wondering WHY learning inspires me. When most people find learning to be a chore, I’ve had a predisposition for enjoying it. Of course I have felt that it’s harder work than it needs to be, and that mainly was the result of poor teaching of difficult subjects. There’s a reason some people find mathematics to be enjoyable: they get it and a teacher likely got them excited about it. Those two aspects are necessary for successful learning.
I realized that I had this love of learning when my jobs kept bringing me back to universities. That realization was solidified when I went back to school for my masters. Talk about a whole other world! I will be the first to admit that primary school can definitely kill any love of learning in any person. Secondary school, let’s talk about the 
undergraduate work, can serve to do the same. But graduate school—you’ll know exactly what it is you want to study, and the programs usually open up to let you explore how. Learning is easier, more engaging, but, above all, it is more successful. You truly become an expert in your field.
While studying for my Masters, my thoughts on continuing education were freed from the dread. In my personal time, I had taught myself to write scripts, and was learning various theological practices just out of a desire to do so. Languages were on my list, and I reflected on turning away from biology to pursue writing, wondering if I could go back and complete that track. I have since started learning German on my own. My Masters solidified my screenwriting into a credential. Going back to finish a degree in biology still hangs out there as a possibility, but I think I’d rather study theology at this point (all of the theologies).
To clarify the effect learning has on my level of inspiration, let me talk about the things I accomplished during my studies. First of all, I have a series of papers, which you can review here on the site. Insights that had been missing, and thus hampered my work, were gained and the path cleared for me to create The Trailokya Trilogy. Up until then, it had existed as a single feature screenplay, and I had no intention of fleshing out the work as novels, because the effort seemed too much of a lift at the time. That might sound odd, because the focus of my work was adapting OP-DEC: Operation Deceit. Yet, some of the things I was reading and thus learning translated to this other work. That, in my estimation was high success.
Not only was the path cleared for the series, and they were written between semesters, but I made some of my jewelry, perfected my work on several recipes, reworked an old script, and got back into graphics work. I would say, going back to school and learning had definitely been inspirational for me.
Let’s hop on over and see what the other authors are inspired by…
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Wow! Busy lady! Great post.
I believe that you should try to learn something new on a regular basis.
They say it keeps the brain healthy. I imagine it is good for the rest of you too, by default.
I can see how learning can get those creative juices flowing. The important thing is that you’ve learned that about yourself. Good for you!
I’ve often found that learning stimulates my imagination. Although I loved school, I think I’ve learned a great deal more since I’ve been out mainly because nobody else is setting my curriculum for me.