Drawing inspiration from students

Students come to teachers for inspiration (especially in the Art room), but it's amazing how much teachers learn from their students. Last semester I was in an Art for the Exceptional Child class. We spent a semester working with students with disabilities. The boy I worked with had a passion for drawing and each week would come to the class room with about ten new drawing in his sketch book. One sketch that I found particularly interesting was a page filled with circles all connected with lines. I had not thought twice about what the meaning behind the drawing was. Later in the class, he explained to me that the circles were symbolic for events. The lines connected all of the events to form a uniformity resulting in "life". I found his thoughts on interconnectedness of life and events very interesting and also very true. Now that I'm in the spring semester I am taking a basic painting class. My professor advised I elaborate the background of my self portrait with some designs. I immediately started drawing circles with connecting lines. A few minutes into painting and I realized that I drew my inspiration from Corey's sketchbook drawings. I find it fascinating how connected we all really are.