22 Days!

So, I've been told often that I'm a leader. A 'natural-born' one so to speak. While I am sometimes soft-spoken and shy, I mostly live my life in full extrovert mode, talking and planning and taking charge in every situation. I've also been told I have a great voice for both public speaking and yelling at children. Which is cool, I guess.

Anyway, one of the biggest things I've done this past year in the way of leadership is apply for the alpha program at my school! Alpha is this huge deal at APU, it's a part of the Orientation program and basically what happens is every single freshman coming into APU gets put into an alpha group with an alpha leader. Freshman spend about 10 weeks with this group the beginning of their first semester, making friends, learning the ropes of college, and having fun! Well, I loved my alpha leader and the program so much that I was really really excited about applying, and even more excited when I found out I got the position! Now, this semester, I will be in charge of around 10 freshman! I'm seriously so stoked on life.

Before poor, confused 18 year olds are put in my care, however, I will have to go through this three week training process, and I officially leave for training in 22 days. Less than a month! I am just so excited for the opportunities that lie ahead I just had to write about it.

Until next time.

But First, Let Me Take a Selfie

I apologize for the blatant use of my own face here.

We are the Millennials, the generation pumped full of conceit and disgrace that we have come to be known for it. Connected constantly to our iPhones, living in our parents bedrooms, looking up only long enough to do the absolute bare minimum at work (or our unpaid internship that we swear will pay off in the long run) then proceed to smoke a joint with our coworkers in the alley outside. We will then, obviously, take out our iPhones again, flip our cameras to front-facing, and take the dreaded selfie.

As completely ludicrous as this scenario sounds, there are a lot of stereotypes given to those of us that just happened to spring from the womb between the years of 1980 and 2000, and one thing that has been criticized in increasing numbers in recent years is our generations fixation on the selfie. We seem to take more pictures of our faces than our environment these days, and to every one else in the world that is apparently a problem. The world views this desire to photograph our faces as one that is shameful, one that we should feel embarrassed about expressing in public. Well, sorry to say, but I'm totally calling BS on this.

Sure, we're the conceited generation. I'll take that if I have to. I would like to point out, however, just what has driven us to become this. Our generation, on top of being 'conceited' has some of the craziest beauty standards of the last century. With all the new technology coming out, we are pressured from every angle to defrizz, smooth out, slim down, and generally beautify our entire selves. We are forced then, if we do not adhere to these standards, to be subjected to ridicule and anger from those around us.

Bottom line is: no matter what we do, we lose. So if, in a world where beauty is absolutely unattainable and we experience shame for not reaching these unattainable standards, we as a generation can find ways to feel beautiful and want to document it: more power to us, I say! We should not have to feel ashamed of seeing ourselves and glorious, and we should not have to hide that we are proud of the way we look. We are put down if we are 'not beautiful,' and we are put down if we don't see that we're 'not beautiful.' Seriously, what is the point anymore? I think we should embrace our own version of beauty and love it! Take millions of selfies, never stop taking them, plaster the world with them. Maybe if we did that, the next generation will get to see what beauty actually is: being authentically and radically yourself.