Don’t Just Look for Inspiration. Choose to Become It.

[Michele McCauley]

What does it really mean to inspire someone?

At Olivet’s Opening Convocation, one student speaker looked beyond the textbook definition of inspire to consider the feelings behind it—hope when we feel hopeless, courage when we are afraid, determination when we want to give up and belonging when we feel like we don’t have a place.

Drawing on the people who have inspired them at Olivet, the student challenged the campus community to recognize the impact we can have on one another through something uniquely human: connection.

As we begin a new academic year centered on Inspire, here’s Bethany Stowell’s invitation to not simply look for inspiration, but to become it.

Inspire: To awaken a specific feeling within someone.

When I first heard this word, I started thinking about what inspiration really means. Looking past the textbook definition, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that a definition is just a strand of words on paper. How can a sentence explaining a word truly replicate the feeling of what it means?

Maybe that’s because inspiration isn’t just one feeling. It can be hope when we feel hopeless, courage when we are afraid, determination when we feel like giving up, or belonging when we feel like we don’t have a place.

It is that feeling that makes us want to do something, become something, or believe that something is possible.

We often imagine inspiration as something extraordinary: a famous speech, a world changing invention like the light bulb, or a person whose accomplishments seem larger than life.

And while each of these things is incredibly inspiring, they are not the only things capable of inspiring us.

The most meaningful inspiration doesn’t usually arrive in dramatic moments. Often, it grows quietly through everyday choices.

Someone plants a seed, not knowing how far it may grow or who it may eventually reach.

Every one of us has been inspired by someone who may not even realize the impact they had. A professor who believed in us long before we believed in ourselves. A coach who reminded us that effort matters just as much as talent. A friend who stayed when life became difficult and we thought for sure the world was going to end. A family member who sacrificed so much for us to chase our dreams.

They may not have known they were inspiring us. They were simply being human. But something they said or did awakened something inside of us that was already there.

None of these actions are bright and flashy.

They’re human.

And maybe that’s what makes inspiration so powerful. It isn’t simply the words someone says or the action someone takes. It’s the humanity behind it.

Sometimes, inspiration is realizing that someone believes you are capable of something before you’re ready to believe it yourself. Sometimes, it’s feeling seen when you thought no one noticed. And sometimes, we don’t even realize we were inspired until much later.

In a world that is rapidly being consumed by generative AI, I think that’s something important for us to remember. AI can generate essays, images, ideas, and even conversations. But there is something different about human connection.

A computer can generate a sentence, but it has never lived a life. It hasn’t experienced failures and victories, relationships, fears, or the moments that shaped us into who we are. It does not know what it feels like to have someone believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself. It does not know what it means to struggle, to persevere, to love, or to hope.

But we do.

Every person sitting in this room is human. We come from different backgrounds, have different experiences, perspectives, cultures, and beliefs. Those differences give us different stories to share and different ways to inspire one another.

We can take what we’ve experienced, what we’ve learned, and what we’ve felt, and use it to awaken something in another person.

We can give someone hope, courage, we can make someone feel like they belong and that is the power we have simply by being human.

And the amazing thing about inspiration is that it spreads like ivy.

Ivy grows quickly. It spreads its roots far beneath the soil and holds on tight, much like we hold on to those who inspire us. One act of kindness encourages another. One person who chooses courage gives someone else the confidence to do the same.

Before long, an entire community can be transformed—not because of one extraordinary individual, but because many ordinary people decided to care.

And that makes us extraordinary together.

Olivet is about community. We have deep roots that hold on to the people who make this place as wonderful as you all are. As members of this community, we each have the opportunity to leave a lasting impact.

Years from now, people may not remember every assignment we completed or every exam we took.

But they will remember how we made them feel.

They’ll remember who welcomed them, who encouraged them, who believed in them, and who inspired them to keep going.

I know I myself have been inspired by many people here on this campus.

My advisor, Laura Barlond-Maas, inspired me to take the chance and switch my major. She saw something in me that I wasn’t sure I could see in myself yet, and encouraged me to take a chance on a different path.

My former swim coach, Megan Dossey, taught me that talent could only take me so far, but hard work, consistency, and the willingness to keep showing up could take me much further. She made me believe I was capable of doing anything I set my mind to.

And my sorority sisters at Soronian took a chance on me. They gave me a place where I could grow, make mistakes, find my voice, and become more confident in who I am.

I still remember who inspired me most.

And you will too.

But here’s the thing: I don’t think those people ever set out to become my inspiration.

They were simply being themselves.

And somewhere along the way, they awakened something in me.

Maybe you’ve done the same thing for someone else without ever realizing it.

So as we begin this new academic year, I hope we don’t simply look for inspiration around us. I hope we recognize that we are capable of giving it.

You don’t have to change the world in a single day.

Sometimes changing one person’s day is enough.

You may never know how far the seed you plant will grow, or whose life your actions will eventually touch.

You may never know what feeling you awakened in someone.

But plant the seed anyway.

So don’t simply look for inspiration around you.

Choose to become it.

The post Don’t Just Look for Inspiration. Choose to Become It. appeared first on The University of Olivet.