Strive and Conquer: On Inspiration for Now and Future

"We are what we strive to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
     - Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

"What's meant to be will always find a way."
     - Trisha Yearwood 

"When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too."

     - Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

"There was never a great soul that did not have some divine inspiration." 
    - Cicero, Marcus T.

I have been thinking about my future for three years now. Actually taking my future into consideration, planning, and putting things together. I have always thought about my future, in the sense of weddings and special events like that, but now is the time to actually start planning, and putting things on calendars, circling and highlighting. The quotes above were literally picked 10 minutes ago when I googled "quotes on inspiration". I thought they would be appropriate for today's post. My main in life is to inspire people and become inspired. It's the unsaid goal, the important life motto that I live by. Inspiration is my 'religion'. I am not religious in any way, but I do 'practice' inspiration. I think it comes from my easily inspired mind. I see a picture on Pinterest, or Instagram of a table with pretty flowers, or some kind of baked good and it inspires me to craft a table out of a tree stump, and create a recipe for all to try. I love inspiring people just as much as I love being inspired. 

I have noticed that when I post about my future plans, and future wants, my readers are more interested. They comment such lovely, uplifting words and it makes me feel great when people want to read my blog. I will never stop blogging. As a young adult, I feel like there aren't many opportunities for me to blog about. I am not interested in the things teenagers do today (party; prowl around; etc), and for that, my parents and I are glad, but I feel like adults get the opportunity to blog about way more interesting things, like their kids, or crafts, trips they go on. The adults in my life are always telling me, "You don't want to grow up too fast." I'm not trying to, but I am dying to. I feel stuck as a 'teenager' (I hate that word). All the things I want to do in life, I have to be an adult to do them. I don't feel unhappy, I feel stuck. A few weeks ago, I drove around because I needed to get out of the house. I drove down roads that I thought would take me to new places because I had never down those roads before. They just took me to roads that I have been on countless times. I think that is what makes me want to be somewhere new after high school, because it isn't here. It is somewhere that is all new to me, and a new adventure. I love adventures that take me to NEW places, not just a new pathway to get there. Gresham has become so boring to me. We have driven down every road possible in the city of Gresham ever since I was a young girl. I am excited to move somewhere new, and find new adventures, new streets, new buildings to look at and enjoy. 

The things I need to take in mind though are all the good things in life. Portland/Gresham is full of my family. They are, after all the base that has made me who I am. My parents are my rocks that help me stand. They have done a good job through the years. I appreciate everything they do and I am thankful that they are in my life. Gresham is full of friends. The friends that have stayed with me this year. The friends that I am excited to see everyday. The new friends I have made this year, and the few old friends that haven't gone completely crazy, and still have their heads. They are people I can count on, and talk to. That is what makes me sad about leaving Oregon, because I will be leaving these amazing people behind. But what is wonderful about moving to Florida is that I will find new people. I will be going to school and working. It will be a new place for me to branch out. It's easy for me to make new friends. If I am sitting in a classroom with a bunch of people of I don't know, I will smile at them and say, "Hi, my name is Courtney.". I thought I was a shy person, but I am really not that shy. I remember last year, it was a CAL orientation and test day. I met two super nice girls from another high school. They were talking about how their teachers were on strike and I chimed in and said, "Yeah, the teachers at Barlow were on strike for one days, not even one day, a few hours." and we became friends. Even though they aren't in my CAL classes, I still see them and wave to them and say 'Hi'. I hope it's that easy in Florida to make friends. I'm sure it will be. 

A choppy transition, but it is the only way to move on to what I wanted to talk about today. I have found two awesome blogger women that have inspired me and who I want to meet one day. One of the bloggers is Jonie from mommabare blog. Her pictures on Instagram are colorful and sweet. She loves to crochet and knit, and she has a passion for birth. I instantly loved her then. I have a newly founded passion for birth. Lately I find myself on Pinterest, looking at midwife things, and reading about different kinds of birth methods. I know how to help deliver a baby in an emergency situation just from researching, it's the same as helping deliver a baby in a calm situation. The mother does the majority of the work, and you really shouldn't cut the cord right away. The placenta still has blood in it and the umbilical cord helps pass that blood from the placenta to the baby. If you cut the cord right away, the baby could have first year anemia and possibly blood problems their whole life. Also, you shouldn't wash the baby right away. It can be harmful to the infant.  Most all babies are born with a coating of vernix on them. Vernix can be very thick at birth or thinner at birth. If you wash that off right away, it can strip the baby of this awesome anti oxidizing, moisturizing, antibacterial, temperature regulating, "natural super stuff"... vernix. It's a mixture of dead skin cells and skin oil that babies shed while they are in the womb. Vernix has helped protect the baby from dehydration. When the baby is outside the womb, it acts as an amazing antibacterial, antioxidant, and temperature regulator to work against E Coli and other bacteria. It is also super moisturizing, "super healing" and cleansing. (How cool is that? Bathing information from Bellies and Babies) I am so excited to become a midwife. I will be a neonatal nurse first, and then later I will become a midwife. I am so excited. 

The other blogger that found and love is Kelle Hampton from Enjoying The Small Things. I first found her story on Pinterest, on how good things can be unexpected and how she was not expecting her little girl to be born with down syndrome. I loved her beautifully written story. I found her on Instagram and book marked on her blog, and now I read it regularly. Kelle Hampton has also written her memoir, it is called Bloom, and I so badly want to read it. I want to be a blogger who has written a book, in fact, before I became a blogger, I wanted to be an author and it is still a dream of mine to achieve that. All these bloggers are so inspirational, and I know everybody has problems, and situations, but that's what I love. They make their problems seem beautiful and calm. (Even though, I know that's not how they really are in the moment of the problem) I only hope to have blogs half as beautiful as these women and other bloggers that I have mentioned before. See how easily inspired I am? 

That is why I want to be an adult so bad. Everything I want to be, I have to be an adult to do that. I am going to enjoy the time that I have now, and become more involved in school, more involved in my blog, and do more to get my blog out there, and become known. That's not my main purpose as a blogger though, to be 'well known'. It's just to document life, but it would be fun to become a well known blogger. 

I have been wanting to write this post for quite some time, just didn't know how to word it and definitely didn't want to do this on the mobile app. I wanted it to have some substance. I hope you enjoyed it, and you visit the blogs that I mentioned today. They are amazing, and beautiful, as well as the bloggers.