Inspire Me (In Both Deep & Not-So-Deep Ways)

So it all started last weekend at Beaverton's Annual GSA Retreat. It was held conveniently at my school. We had a bunch of food, not enough people, and some really cool speakers. Although all of them were awesome, one of them really hit home with me, and her name was Nicole. She was transgendered.

Like all the other speakers, she simply told her story. She talked about growing up in a small town, raised by a Catholic family, and how she has 11 brothers and sisters. She talked about growing up envying the girls for being able to wear adorable dresses when she couldn't. She talked about always trying to hide her weird self. She grew up, met a wonderful woman in college, got married and had kids. This weird part of her never went away and she would still have to duck into the bathroom every now and then for some time in a skirt. One day her eldest son found some certain pictures of her times in bathrooms on a computer they had. He cried, showed his mother, she cried, got his father [Nicole], and they talked about it. They told him it was all going to be okay. And it was for awhile. Her wife knew and was okay with it. And her son too. It took some tears and getting used to, but they didn't disown her or anything. The problem with her wife was, she gave her blessing, but she didn't want to see it. Well one day she convinced her wife to come upstairs and see her in a dress. They were both so scared. The first thing her wife said? "You're beautiful." Just like that. I almost cried because it was so perfect. It was the last thing she expected but the thing she would wanted to most hear and it was just so perfect. My boyfriend does that sometimes and I want to just die with happiness because he is so perfect.

That wasn't the only time I wanted to cry, either. Further in her story she was going out with some friends of hers all dressed up and she gets a call from her wife. She says this: "I'm telling the kids today. We have to separate." It was so heartbreaking because they seemed so in love. They were so in love. She goes on to tell her story about how she came out at work all dressed up and the ordeals of that. She was so amazing, and so brave. I wish you would all go meet her.

The next inspirational speaker I met was at the 2010 Nike Youth Forum (otherwise known informally as Nike Day) this last Thursday. His name was Kevin Carroll and he too, simply told his story. His entire job is just going around, telling his story and inspiring people. He kept talking about this little red rubber ball that he played with and chased and that was his passion. The Red Rubber Ball quickly became a metaphor for your passion, and he kept preaching to chase it. He's written books on Red Rubber Balls, and he gave one to each of us, and some of us were lucky enough to get actual Red Rubber Balls that he also gave out. Mine is on my bookshelf. Kevin does some amazing work as a speaker. http://kevincarrollkatalyst.com/

The other inspiration I wanted to talk about was just all the sites I visited today from one little link that my sister emailed me. Ruffles and Stuff ( http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/ ) is just this girl who likes ruffles and likes sewing and created a blog out of her creations and even has some kickass tutorials. From there, I saw countless ideas from her and others that I fell in love with.

Like the Love Note Journal
http://ryleehitchner.blogspot.com/2010/02/bits-of-my-handmade-present.html

Or this girl who used fishnets in a classy necklace
http://getcraftin.blogspot.com/2010/02/stockings-and-pearls-equals-fabulous.html

A really quirky button bouquet
http://artisticcreationswithtrudy.blogspot.com/2010/01/button-flower-bouquets.html

A flowery Bracelet
http://therubberpunkin.blogspot.com/2009/12/fabric-flower-bracelet.html

I am always losing my pencils
http://noodleheads.blogspot.com/2009/12/tutorial-zakka-inspired-pencil-pouch.html

An Adorable shirt
http://tearosehome.blogspot.com/2009/10/t-shirt-makeover-and-more.html

Go write with a crayon. You forgot how much you missed them.
http://www.oopsicraftmypants.net/2009/12/shaped-crayons.html

But do you see? There are so many amazing people out there with such fantastical ideas! They're everywhere and we never really see them until we hear them tell their story, or post a cool link, or share their project. People are so intuitively creative and original, it's amazing.