During the first weekend of June, I attended the 2ndannual Rutgers New Brunswick Writers Conference. I woke up at 6 a.m. to drive to the Rutgers Continuing Studies building and sit in several rooms all day. While that may not sound like much, sitting there listening to published authors speak, participating in activities, learning tips, and connecting with other writers of all ages and all experiences, all really helped me finally feel inspired to sit down and write something beyond articles.

I was surrounded by writers of all ages, backgrounds, published or not, and experiences, and talking with all these people about how they deal with writer's block, what stories they create, how they create them, how they research them, how they have time, etc, made me want to do it myself.

Over two days, my need to write became a craving for writing, like craving for a piece of candy. But I wondered why now, after months of struggling to focus on one story, am I suddenly feeling this need? This conference brought back why I wanted to write: the creativity, the fun, and yes, even the dream of being published one day. Talking to people who have been writing and trying to get published for years helped me realize that nothing good has to happen right away, everything takes time. Talking to students and recent graduates about having no experience and no idea of where to go also helped me realize just how many people were in the same boat.

After months of feeling that I was pretty lost in my writing and what to do with it, these conversations helped me realize I wasn't the only one feeling this way and that in do time, it'll all work out in the end. Talking to people who tried to get published for ten or fifteen years made me feel that I have time and that nothing needs to happen right now like I was thinking. Hearing people say they worked years on one book because they had no time also made me feel much better about how little I've truly been doing lately.

But attending workshops and creating once again in activities brought back the joy and thought that I had been lacking. For the first time in a while, I was able to come up with something that wasn't for school or a class or work, but for myself, and share it with others.

All by being with people who have a similar experience or at least similar thoughts helped me gain the inspiration to work on my writing again after months of busy schedules and no desire to spend extra time actually writing. Though only two days, the small things people shared to me made me realize that nothing is done fast or perfect and that all that matters is actually sitting down and getting to do it. Turns out the best way to gain inspiration is to go to the source, to other people and their similar experiences, to other writers. You never know if someone's words will inspire your own.