Author: Tom

Inspiration by Quinn Guilfoyle

Inspiration—a topic each student approached with a unique blend of creativity and emotion. QUINN transports us to LA’s Skid Row to find it. What is inspiration, and where can you find it? Most people are inspired by their parents or other role models. Others are inspired by others' failures in a desire to be better than they were. Inspiration is defined as “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially something creative.” If you think about it, you can find inspiration anywhere. You can find your inspiration through art or music or speeches. You can also find inspiration through drugs or alcohol or hurting others. So now you understand how important it is to find the right kind of inspiration.  I saw a short documentary from a guy who does this series. The series includes interviews of random people he finds on the streets, I guess. Most of them have similar issues. The channel on youtube is called Soft White Underbelly. The one that stuck out to me most was about a woman named Rebecca… a transgender woman struggling with addiction living on Skid Row in Los Angeles, California. I can’t exactly remember how this interview came to be. It seemed like the interviewer had seen Rebecca on the streets often. Anyways, Rebecca spoke about how she grew up in New York. Her parents died when she was young, so she was in and out of foster care. She said nobody really wanted her because she was trans. Eventually, at only sixteen years...