Inspire vs. Aspire By: Alecxis Villapando

    More commonly used of the two, inspire, means to motivate, encourage, or trigger (in a positive way) someone to do or feel something. While aspire can be synonymous with pursuit, ambition, and even potential. Inspire and aspire both have similar root endings of “spire,” which in latin means “to breathe into life.” This shouldn’t be taken literally, instead “breathe” should be seen as “to bring.” 

Many are inspired by their parents, skilled athletes, talented musicians, hospitable healthcare workers, hardworking engineers and/or more. But you can also aspire to become your parent, that skilled athlete, that talented musician, that hospitable healthcare worker, that hard working engineer, or another successful person (in your eyes). Although these two words are almost interchangeable, you usually need to aspire before you inspire. The famous saying by Eugene Bell Jr. goes “Aspire to inspire before you expire.” He’s trying to tell us to influence others into action so that they fulfill their ambitions before dying. As a society it’s not ideal to be selfish, we should all strive to be better and we have to motivate one another. Just because the next person is smarter, richer, better-looking, stronger, or better in some way shape or form than you, it doesn’t mean you should be jealous of them. At the end of the day, we all want to be our best selves and sometimes to reach that point in life we need the encouragement and wisdom from others.   

For me, I am inspired by my parents because they’re respectful and respectable, selfless, insightful, and responsible. However, I don’t exactly aspire to be them. As cliche as it sounds, I want to be my own person. To be honest, I don’t know what I aspire to be career-wise; All I know is that I aspire to be a kind and respectful person to everyone as much as possible.

I aspire to be the person that people will go to when they need a hug or advice. 

I aspire to be the person who takes risks.

I aspire to stay optimistic.  

I aspire to be unreliant of my phone.

I aspire to efficiently balance life and work/school.  

I aspire to be the person who lives in the moment.

And of course, I aspire to inspire before I expire.