How to get inspired as a writer

Writing is hard. As an aspiring journalist, I have written and rewritten (and rerewritten) countless articles that will never see the light of day. And that's okay with me. It's practice. A misconception about writing, especially for published authors, is that writing is easy for professional writers. That every single person that has gone into a profession heavily reliant on writing, can whip up a story without even batting an eye. This isn't even close to true. How could it be? Writing takes practice, research, googling, etc. And since writing does not always flow so easily out of the tips of a writers' fingers, there is a lot of trudging involved. For me, its procrastination. I know that once I boot up my laptop and oven Chrome, my homework is not even on my mind. Netflix is almost imbedded into my fingers, like the first key that they naturally drift to is the 'N'. Eventually I'll almost fall asleep and realize my homework should probably be acknowledged. Some writers don't even like writing. Sure, they might be good at it, have a natural knack for stringing words together to flow so that readers want to devour them, but some hate the actual physical act of transferring thoughts into concrete written 'squiggles'.
My senior year of highschool, half of the year was devoted to writing a senior thesis research paper. I  had to write a 15 page paper developed through months of research, analysis, tears, etc. And at the end of the process, was an oral defense waiting, where I had to defend my paper and its argument to my professors. And of course, I was the first person in my class to complete the paper, and have the oral defense. Suffice to say, I nailed it, but I completely doubted myself along the way. Again, procrastination got the best of me. My paper was due during my spring break, and 12 pages of the paper, somehow, got written the day before it was due. C'est la vie. Writing is different when its for pleasure, or on your own terms. When you don't have a strict set of guide lines to follow, or a list longer than your forearm of sources to cite. Writing sometimes just flows out, but that writing isn't what teachers are looking for. When writing about academic topics, motivation find its way to curl up in the nooks of your brain and never reappear. Outlines restrict the cogs from working. In order to get your brain up and running again, you have to share your work. Outside readers are ideal because they have nothing to gain or lose from just giving their honest opinions.
To write, is to elicit a response from readers, to evoke the parts of readers they didn't even know they cared about. Personally, that is a great reason to write, but I also write to clear my head. Thoughts that bounce around, not knowing what to do with them, a solution was found in typing them and seeing them appear on a screen as the voice speaks them in my head. Its the coolest feeling