Pillars of Inspiration

I know it's been a while since I last added an entry, but I have decided to break with the seeming tradition of "bitchy" articles that slate one area of society or another, and I want to give back to people who have proved inspirational or altruistic to either myself personally or on a more general level. This whole idea may not be my style, maybe people like the "bitchy", and maybe people just plain want me to shut up about the school I now no longer attend, but why not give it a go.

Also, I'm trying a new blog visual style of having little indented header graphics as opposed to those big old things across the top. Maybe if I am bored and find the time I'll re-jig all the others, we'll see.

Anyway, what sort of thing am I going for? Well, first I'll just talk about what I personally find inspirational, then go into areas of sport and community and round it up with a few pictures.

So what inspires me? Actually to be honest it can be quite broad. I like people who are honest with themselves and others, who give to themselves the respect they deserve (but no more then that, pretension isn't a good quality) and feel at ease with people. You've got to be humble, as people who are big-for-their-boots can be somewhat crotchety and it doesn't endear you. Selflessness can be good, but there comes a time when number one counts and you need to put yourself first; we've all seen films that have people going "I can't go without so-and-so, save them first" when it is obvious that either the person being thought of will die anyway or it puts others in mortal danger. Not good, very bad example of a cliche there but you get the idea. But my own definition of "inspirational " is still very wishy-washy as I write it, so let's bulk it up.

Inspiration for me has to be consistent. To inspire me in the long run you need to commit to doing something and stick it out, though of course I can't rule out people who do one-off acts of bravery or selflessness. You definitely need to be nice, but as nice is very subjective, you need to be nice to people and seen as nice by a lot of people, but that's almost too easy so you need definitely to be seen in a nice way for what you do for others and yourself; vacuous most-popular kinds (you know, the stereotypical "jock" in those dire American teen movies) don't make the cut. Just because you have a lot of friends doesn't make you an inspiration to others, maybe you just have the coolest hat. Who knows.

Also, it's dedication to a purpose that I like. Goes down well.

So enough of all this sentimental claptrap that I'm spewing, let's get some examples and drop some names.

I don't know much about sport, but I do happen to know a lot of rugby players. I don't like rugby per se, I find it a bit... barbaric. But I admire a good friend of mine, Jack Baird, who is really committed to his sport (and sport in general, to be honest, but hey) and he takes his rugby seriously. He wants to coach it professionally, is off to Hartpury College to get a degree to do so and that's great. But what puts him among the pillars of inspiration?

Dedication: he does a lot of athletic training, especially lately and he does this to prepare for his university course. let's see what he's done recently with his best friend and his Olympic coach (can't verify any of this but I have no reason not to believe Jack):

[Yesterday] did sprints for 2 miles with 10x 1 minute intervals which hurt, [and] today was 1200m run, 10x 25m sprints and then 6x 150m sprints at 100%.

He then went on to say:

its at the point wen you and your body wants to give up and it hurts but you keep going to the finish wen you feel and realise the dedication.

He's dedicated. And that's not it. He also coaches others to do rugby and most of all he loves doing this! He loves coaching other eager beavers and he loves playing the sport himself. Dedicated? Certainly? Dedicated to others? Certainly. Inspirational? Certainly.

What of the realms of the intellectual? These are a bit harder to quantify; you can't really say "he does this and that, he does it so much he sweats a bucket and is almost dead". But we must  go for those who strive in the face of hardship and just get on with it, and are passionate.

Of these two "pillars" - this isn't official or some form of awards platform, I am not keeping tabs - goes to Dan Jennison for the following reasons: again, dedication,  positivity in the face of adversity and people power. Allow me to explain further.

First of all, he's a smart guy. Three As can't dispute this. He's had an eventful summer - for all the wrong reasons yet still succeeded, even though he missed his exams. This I know has troubled him as he wanted to work for his grades instead of getting predictions and he deserves a chance yet to prove himself.

Also, I don't think I've met someone so universally popular, and someone who strives to not think of themselves over others. It's brilliance. So come on, how can you not recognise such greatness?

Obviously I don't like to use the word "legend". It's banded around far too liberally to mediocre sports people to hairdressers. People like Jack and Dan aren't legends, not any man and his dog. We need to use this more sparingly or it will lose the meaning. Not good, and bloody annoying if you ask me. These young people... they have no idea!

So, there's obviously more people then these two, but they're the greatest example of people I consider inspirational. I don't want a definitive "list" of my friends, which would be very subjective and very irrelevant unless you know the people concerned. So none of that will go up, but hopefully you get the general idea.

What can we conclude from this? Well, definitely it's all about being for others in addition to (but not excluding) doing what you do for yourself. But also you need to be able to make other people who may not be as passionate understand your point of view. Hell, I have very little interest in rugby or maths but I can respect these two for what they do. It's a quality that I can't really quantify... but you know, if you can get an apathetic, disinterested lemon like me at least warmed to it then that's a success.

So has my "experiment" been a success? I like to think so, even if it rambled badly. Probably will be onto more "less-personal" topics in future posts, but keep the interest!