Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today…oh boy…we have one of Berks County Living magazine’s own, Nikki Murry. Welcome to the Project.
Nikki Murry: Thank you.
Toni: So Nikki, take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Nikki: Well, I just celebrated my six-year anniversary with the magazine.
Toni: Wow. Congratulations!
Nikki: Thank you. I’m the editor of the magazine, and I am the mother of one middle schooler, soon to be teenager. He’ll be 12 in a couple weeks—my son, Riley. I’m a dog mom, too, and a dog rescuer, and a big fan of music and Bruno Mars, and Yankees baseball.
Toni: Did you catch the game, was that yesterday or the day before?
Nikki: On Mother’s Day. Yes. They retired Derek Jeter’s number. My favorite player of all time.
Toni: Really?
Nikki: Yes.
Toni: There you go. Piece of trivia for all you Berks County Living fans. Alright. First and foremost, thank you from everybody who has been part of this Project and people who will be in the future for this Project. People love it. They feel honored. Thank you for allowing it to happen.
Nikki: It’s my pleasure.
Toni: Let’s go on to the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Nikki: Like I said earlier when we talked, this is a little harder for me, because I’ve seen and heard so many of these interviews. I’ve been thinking about it for a few days, personally. Inspiration I think for me is acting on an extreme emotion. It could be negative. It could be positive. It’s something that’s so, I don’t know, big within me one way or another that I feel like I have to do something about it.
Toni: You used the word “extreme.”
Nikki: Yes.
Toni: Tell me what that means. Is that something that is a visceral reaction, emotional? What happens when you’re inspired?
Nikki: For me, acting on my inspiration is something that happens as a result of an extreme emotion. It’s intense sadness, intense stress, intense love for something. I think it has to be big, that emotion. It can't be fleeting. It can't be, “That movie made me sad. I’m going to go out and act on it.” It’s not that. It’s something bigger than that.
Toni: So, how do you take that when it happens to you and put that into practice here in Berks County?
Nikki: I’m in a little bit of a unique situation, because I have somewhat of a voice through the magazine. A lot of things that inspire me in my day-to-day life that I take notice of, I keep that in the back of my mind and do something about it when we’re planning the magazine. I do something in my personal life.
One example I can think of was when my son played baseball in Hamburg. I played softball for so many years as a kid, and like I said, I love baseball. I really, really wanted to be involved more than just sitting on the stands and watching. I wanted to help with coaching. They look for volunteers all the time. It was really a boy’s club. I pushed and pushed and pushed. It took me probably about three years, but I kept pushing and I kept asking until I got to the point where I asked the President of the association, “Am I being looked over because I’m a woman?” Finally got somewhere with it and started coaching.
Toni: Wow!
Nikki: So, yeah, persistence, because I knew it was out there. I knew it was something I was passionate about, and I just kept pushing it until I did it.
Toni: Good for you. Do you find yourself, Nikki, being inspired daily, or is this something that happens random to you?
Nikki: For me, I think it’s random. I work with dog rescue daily. I see things daily, but there are certain cases that just pull at my heart more than others. I would say it’s more random for me.
Toni: When’s the last time you were inspired during the dog rescue?
Nikki: There’s this certain case that I’m following right now, and it’s with this dog. She’s in another state, but her neglect was just so extreme and her recovery is going to be so long and so up and down that I’m just following that. It pulls at my heartstrings and there’s part of me that says, “When she’s there, when she’s ready, I want to adopt that dog.” I don’t know if it’ll happen. I’m inspired to check on her every day, because I know about the story. We’ll see where it goes.
Toni: So that action for you, the extreme action, would be to adopt the dog.
Nikki: Yes.
Toni: Yes. But the simmer on the inspiration is making sure you’re following the progress of that dog.
Nikki: Yes.
Toni: I like that. I like that a lot. So, who in Berks County inspires you?
Nikki: A lot of people. My boss, Robyn. She inspires me because we’re a lot alike, but we act in different ways. She’s very vocal, and I would say she’s outgoing. She might say that she’s not, but I see her as being an extrovert, while I’m an introvert. While we feel the same about a lot of things, we exhibit it in different ways. I’m inspired by her ability to do that and be so openly passionate.
My friend Marcy Tocker, she has Grey Muzzle Manor. She inspires me also. We’re a lot alike, because she does a lot with animal rescue. She faces a lot of hardships with what she does, and she just keeps going, no matter what. She just keeps pushing.
Another person that I was thinking about…I meet a lot of people, and I’ve actually never met this person in person, but in all my dealings with him and everything I hear about him, I find him very inspiring, is Mark Goldstein with Blankets of Hope. I really admire everything he does, and I can just feel the passion behind what he does.
Toni: You know what’s so cool about this Project, Nikki?
Nikki: What?
Toni: Is that Mark Goldstein may listen to this, and he follows this, and he’s going to hear this person he’s never met say how he inspires you, and that’s what happens during this Project. That is so cool. The reasons why you’re inspired and giving a shout out to these people. That’s amazing. They may not even know.
Nikki: Right.
Toni: Way to go. That’s so cool. Alright, here we go…what do you want your legacy to be, Nikki?
Nikki: This is the hardest one. I want people to look back and think of me and think that I was a good person, that I did things to make a difference when it meant something to me. I think people will look back on me and know what meant something to me, which is important to me. I’d like to pass that along to my son. I’d like him to be passionate about what he cares about, and to pass that on to future family members. I think that’s what I’d like my legacy to be.
Toni: Well, you know I say it almost in every interview. People are living their legacy, not necessarily leaving it behind. What an amazing testimonial in this interview to talk about what inspires you, what moves you, and how extreme it must be for you. I can only imagine the action that you take, that legacy you are already living and showing your son every day. Not a bad deal. Thank you so much for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
Nikki: Thank you.
