There was a time when my kids, my hobbies of scrapbooking and card making, and IDK just being with friends were my inspirations. Listening to music has always been on my list but when raising kids, it fell down the list. That means I didn't get to discover many new bands, unless I happened to hear something while I was at work. That didn't happen too much.

Then 2016 happened and all of my "pre-kids" and my high school, college, & grad school inspirations returned. Suddenly, I was interested in politics again, not as a bystander like I had been since graduating grad school, but back in the game, as a participant. The funny thing is though that in college and grad school my "political" endeavors also involved music as I was Vice Chair of the Programming Board and later an Advisor for a Program Board committee. That was how I used to always stay on top of music and the latest bands/artists. I'd get to listen to them at conference showcases and select them to perform at our college/university. So I've really enjoyed following the suggestions everyone throws out about new (to me) music. That inspires me and music is never far from me!

The other thing that really and truly inspires me is politics. In fact, I just returned home from watching The Presidential Debate with the Paulding County Democratic Party and Marcus Flowers, who in 2022, took on Marjorie Taylor Greene to win that Congressional seat. That was an exciting evening for me. I was supposed to go to Downtown ATL to participate in Democratic Debate activities but didn't want to get caught up in all of the traffic and risk maybe missing the debate, so opted for the more quiet Paulding Co scene.

Since 2018, I've been so inspired by making sure that this country is better when I leave this earth than it is now, that I have taken on leadership roles in county and district Democratic politics. I LOVE talking to people in grocery stores or restaurants or really anywhere about whether or not they're registered to vote in the county they live in and if they know how to check that. I like to talk to them about ideas that are important to them and why they need to vote for Democrats (typically) to make those ideas come to fruition. I love knocking on doors in rural Paulding County where people are so excited to get a visit from a Democrat because they thought they were the only Democrat in NW Georgia. I enjoy writing postcards, texting voters, and making phone calls to Democrats. All of these activities inspire me and encourage me to be better and to do more.

In 2022 when David and I came across each other on Twitter and then founded Project Blue Dot, a group of people in safe blue states (several of whom are from DBIS) supporting Blue Dots in Red States, I found  a new inspiration. David worked raising money for Paulding County Democrats and I found some projects that could be supported with this money. The goal was to work toward getting rid of Marge Taylor Greene and electing state candidates like Stacey Abrams and local candidates. We also designed stickers to put in various places around Paulding County (e.g. gas pumps, bathroom stalls) that said things that let people know that not everyone here was a conservative. One of the most exciting projects we worked on was researching facts on topics people had misconceptions about and coming up with convenient Fact Pacts for canvassers to use.

Because I am so inspired by politics right now, I love talking about it. Yes I get frustrated about it. I am really, really concerned about what will happen to this country if trump wins. They may not wear Nazi uniforms but there are many fascists lurking in places like where I live. These are the people that will say the "N" word in public, aloud for anyone to hear or will say disparaging things about Muslims, or immigrants, or you name it. These are the same people that will be fine with a dictator and are fascistic NOW. For me politics is not only an inspiration, I feel like it's a calling, and a necessity to make this a better place for my kids and the babies I work with.

Music is good too.

Here's an article from 2020 about what being a Democrat in my county is like.https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/12/heres-what-its-like-to-be-a-staunch- democrat-in-a-deep-red-georgia-county/