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here's a context.

One of the happiest moments I’ve had was when I was doing something enthusiastically.
Whether it’s love or study or competition, whatever it is, the happiest moment is when I find myself doing something enthusiastically.
It is only when I’m doing something enthusiastically that I can feel I’m alive. But sometimes, it is hard that I’m in a state of being enthusiastic, one that I really want to be in. So, what I’d like to talk about is how we can keep ourselves enthusiastic (what shoud we do to keep ourselve enthusiastic?).
I think the answer is Inspiration. If you look it up in a dictionary (looking up in a dictionary), "to inspire" means to give someone a strong feeling of enthusiasm.
Then, naturally we get to think about how we can inspire others or find others who inspire us.

Whenever I used 'get to + verb', I mix it up. What I think is necessary when I use get to is that there has to be something that makes us do something.
For example, if we think about inspiration, we get to think about how to inspire others, and that we do that not willingly but just happen to do that.

Am I right to think this way and is my use of 'get to' in a context right?

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    "I get to think. . ." means that he has the opportunity to think about that. To say he is impelled or required to think about it, you would say "I've got to think. . . " Apr 28, 2015 at 8:20
  • @BrianHitchcock - and that would be fit for an answer!
    – Stephie
    Apr 28, 2015 at 8:47

2 Answers 2

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My favorite usage of "get to" is in South Park:

STAN: Does this mean we have to go to church on Sundays again?

RANDY: No. It means we get to, son. It means... we get to.

It's used differently than in your example, but you can see the connotations that this phrase has. "Get to think" means that no one is forcing you or prompting you to think, it's just the natural thing you end up doing in that situation.

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"Get to" specifically implies that doing that thing is a privilege: I get to vacation in France; we get to make important decisions for the company. I believe it's being used in the same way in your quote.

It's hard to figure out from context because it's an unexpected thing to refer to as a privilege, but the author is obviously doing that for effect.

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