inspiration.

I'm participating in a blog mashup!

You're probably wondering what that is.

It's a little confusing to explain, but I'll give it a try. Basically, a bunch of bloggers (about 300) are going to write posts about what inspires them daily and link to each other.

It's called "Blog it Forward," and it is being hosted by Victoria of sfgirlbybay.

What has been inspiring me lately is the lovely group of students that I teach. I have a huge group of young men and women that I teach, but I have taken it upon myself (I don't know when or how, but it seems that I have) to be a mentor of sorts to the girls and do everything I can to be a strong and positive influence in their lives. Some of them I have taught at one time or another since they were eight or nine years old; others are brand new to me this year. All of them are special, talented, vibrant, beautiful, zany, gifted, and fabulous.

I have shared before how I decided to include them in some of my photowalking excursions, and that is honestly one of the better ideas I've had, I think, ever. (See this post that explains more about that.) Well, now they've even asked me to teach a photography class next year, and I am considering speaking with my directors about it, because I would love to do that. Mind you, I am these girls' music teacher.

I was going to go a different route with this inspiration post and do what many of the incredible bloggers that I have read this month have been doing, by sharing my little corners of the web where I go and am constantly inspired, and show you images of those places and those things.

I have decided instead to do something that hits even closer to home for me, and share images of these young girls who inspire me even more than my aforementioned corners of the web.

I won't share their names, but I will tell you a little something about each of them. These girls are going to rule the world.

This one is the sweetest little honeybee.

She is very quiet and reserved, but loves to have fun and try new things and is always up for an adventure.

She is always co-operative, and a very conscientious student. And she has the warmest, gentlest heart. She's just a beautiful girl.

This is her big sister.

She is a delightful soul with a disposition made of sunshine. She has a lot of friends because she is a good friend. Trustworthy, caring, and generous.

And of course, gorgeous.

And then there's this cutie. And my, what a cutie she is. Inside and out.

She IS the life of the party.

And with a style that really is all her own, not some carbon copy of some other would-be individual. She is the trendsetter. And quite talented. She took these photos of me with my camera.

Yep, that's me and some of my girls. Just hangin.'

They're so creative, they rarely need any direction from me as to what to do to get an interesting shot. Most of the time I just nudge them in a certain direction. Like, towards the laundromat.

Oh, the laundromat.

And they ate it up, and what we ended up with are shots that look like they were ripped out of an Urban Outfitters catalog. My girls are that fierce.

And that's them, doing their "Mrs. Bradshaw Pose," which they informed me they want to do every time we get together for a shoot.

These ladies are photographers, musicians, singers, artists, and actors. Not to mention style mavens. They always talk about how I inspire them, but if they only knew what it does for ME to be around THEM.

These young women are an immense inspiration to me. I thought I was pretty inspired as a teen, but looking at these girls and the lives they lead shows me that while I was inspired, I could have gone so much farther. Because these girls have gone farther. And are going farther still.

Thanks for indulging me and reading this. I don't brag on just my biological kids!

The Hipster Home passed the Blog It Forward torch to me, and now I am passing it on to The Fairly Constant Reader. Enjoy!

(All photos were taken with my camera and post-processed by me.)