There are roughly one hundred two days until I turn eighteen and become – at least legally – an adult. I’m not sure if it’s due to this imminent adulthood or because my conscience is maturing, but I’ve felt a constant pressure of moral obligation the past few weeks. Whether saving money to lend to third-world businesses through Kiva.org or looking into tutoring for my school’s chapter of Mu Alpha Theta, I suddenly feel as if I have a duty to give something back to the world and to my community.

Lately, this sense of obligation has led me to sign up (or, at this moment in time, officially decide to sign up) for a blood drive run through my school. While I’m not petrified of needles, I can’t say I find them pleasant, but something tugged at my conscience long enough and hard enough that I was driven to donate blood. Something about the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few… or the one. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, for the record.) I’m a young, perfectly healthy human being, and losing one pint of blood to save lives isn’t going to cause me any traumatizing bodily harm. While I teetered back and forth while making my decision, the argument was unchanging: Why wouldn’t I?

The blood drive is in February, which means I still have quite a bit of time to sit around and panic about a needle being forced into my skin, but, right now, donating blood seems like one of the most obvious choices I’ve made in quite some time. I’m beginning to realize that I am an astonishingly privileged human being. I have my health, an education, access to basic facilities, and a bright, malleable future waiting for me. For the first time I’m realizing that there isn’t a reason I shouldn’t try to make a difference in the world around me. It isn’t a matter of being merely charitable, keeping up a polished public image, collecting tax returns, or whatever reason others give for donating time, blood, or money: It’s a moral obligation. As a human being, I have a responsibility to make the world as wonderful as I possibly can.

Call this a sign of maturity if you like, but I like to think of it as another step toward the person I want to see myself become. While it would be great to look in the mirror twenty years from now and see a happily married, successful woman without wrinkles around her eyes, I’ve learned that the most well-kept appearances can conceal the most hideous hearts. I would rather see a woman who knows she has as grand a heart inside as the face she shows to the world. As put so well in A Beautiful Mind, “Perhaps it is good to have a beautiful mind, but an even greater gift is to discover a beautiful heart.”

2012 will mark the year I stop being solely confined to myself and the trials and tribulations of my life alone. I want to be a part of something bigger than myself. After all, I’ve finally realized that my conscience won’t let me sleep if I try otherwise.

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As you might have noticed, AlexisWrites.com hasn’t been online for approximately the past week or so. This is primarily due to the fact that, while I had the domain name renewed, I didn’t have my account with my hosting company renewed before I left for London and the new year started. It took a while to work out the details, but, at last, I’m back to my usual blogging ways.

With that being said, this is my official text welcome to 2012! I’ve switched the layout for the end of the world new year, and it now contains the details of my Twitter feed, my YouTube channel, and a map right at center screen, which is my personal favorite addition to the layout. The little white crosses on the map indicate (roughly) everywhere I have been on the globe. Right now that map is limited to the American Midwest, the east coast, London, and a bit of western England.

Back at my YouTube channel, I did upload a new video about my trip to England – or, rather, the shenanigans that occur when you release a group of American teenagers into my current favorite city in the world. That can be viewed here, or, more conveniently, in the player below.

Overall, happy 2012, and, as always, thanks for checking in!

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AlexisWrites.com is currently under a bit of construction in preparation for the 2012 layout. Please check back later!

-Alexis

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In approximately eighteen hours, I leave for London, England. Our plane departs at six thirty in the evening, which essentially means we’ll be flying through the night, and my first day abroad will be spend shopping in Trafalgar Square and exploring the city and doing who-knows what else. In summary? If I want to have any semblance of energy, it would be in my best interest to sleep on the plane ride. Pulling an all-nighter has never worked well for me.

In order to ensure that I do actually get more than an hour or two of sleep on the plane, I’m doing my best to stay up as long as possible tonight in order to make myself extremely tired tomorrow. In theory, my exhaustion will outweigh my insane, overbearing excitement, and I’ll be able to get some shut-eye.

Experience has told me that I have a tendency to stay awake the longest when I’m being creative. In order to give myself a bit of motivation, here is a blog post to be updated throughout the night with all of my late-night creative endeavors. Quite honestly, who knows what will end up here?

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12:14 a.m.: Morgana Appreciation Graphic

A collection of six screencaps from Merlin, a television series to which I’ve recently taken a liking. The character is Morgana as portrayed by Katie McGrath. Graphic done in GIMP. Screencaps from the Internet.

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1:18 a.m.: Procession of Mules

Considering the fact that I opened Garageband, went “Ooh, look! Banjo noises!”, and went on to make a musical doodle about a procession of mules, I would say the midnight insanity is beginning to set in.

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3:45 a.m.: Kingdom

Technically the title of this Garageband file was “MIDNIGHTMIDGHTNIDASDFLKAJDG”, but I’ve taken it upon myself to change it to something more suitable. If you ignore the fact that I exceeded the volume limit (turning down your speakers helps) toward the end and also that some of the rhythmic things are off due to the fact that it’s past three in the morning, I actually really like this. It’s one of the few things I would consider expanding in the future.

Think Camelot and dark sorcery and valiant heroes.

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3:46 a.m.:

Good night, Internet.

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SInce I’ll be out of the country during the last days of 2011 and first days of 2012, I thought it would be best to do my annual New Year’s video now. A video in which I discuss Kiva.org, my poodle hair, and a dancing snowman.

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Hi, I’m Alexis, and I was once a Twilighter. My story of sparkles, recovery, and why people seem to like Twilight in the first place. Also, why Edward Cullen is like Antoine Dodson, and a lovely excerpt from “Twilight”.

If you haven’t heard it already, the Bed Intruder Song can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw

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I’d like to take a moment to appreciate the fact that, two days ago, I reached fifty YouTube subscribers on my vlog channel (which, for the record, can be viewed here). Part of me suggests that I should be filming a video about this, but I made a promise to myself a few months ago that I wouldn’t make a celebratory video until I reached one hundred subscribers, so a blog post it is.

In the grand scheme of things, fifty YouTube subscribers is not a momentous occasion. I’m not a YouTube partner, I don’t make much of an impact, and I still get less than one hundred views on the average video. I have three or four subscribers who constantly comment on my videos, however, and I am extremely grateful for them. They make me feel like I’m actually talking to a person and not an empty bedroom and a video camera.

On this day, December the 10th, a little over two years after I started youtube.com/aswritten, my statistics are as follows:

-I have a total of 5,366 videos on 40 videos. That’s about 134 videos each.

-My videos have been disliked twice. Both dislikes come from the same video.

-My most viewed vlog is a speed drawing I did of Star Trek’s Mr. Spock on a whim. It currently has over 600 views.

-My audience consists mostly of American females.

For extra motivation, I like to set my goals in a places other can see them, so I’ll openly say I’d like to have 75 subscribers by next summer. I don’t think that’s a fully unrealistic goal. My goal of 2011 was to gain 15 subscribers and therefore have 35 subscribers by 2012, and I passed that goal pretty quickly.

Overall, happy fifty subscribers to me! I’d make a cake if I had the time! Thanks for all of the support everyone has given me over the past few years and for everything that will happen in the future!

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Thanksgiving began as a festival where the community gathered and gave thanks for the food the harvest gave them that season. Now, for most people, it’s evolved into a massive feast where entire family trees come together for a hearty meal and discuss all they’re thankful to have.

In my house, Thanksgiving has never been an all-important holiday. My mom spends the day cooking, yes, but we don’t have much of an extended family (at least, not one that lives nearby), so dinner has always been with my parents and younger brother. While I love sitting down and having wonderful food in good company, as far as the giving thanks is concerned, I’ll be honest and say that, to a degree, I’m not a particular fan of the concept.

Do I think it’s wrong to openly express how grateful one is for turkey, stuffing, family, and friends? Not in the slightest. Do I think it’s wrong to devote one day to telling those people how thankful one is to have them and spend the rest of the year critiquing their every move? Yes. Thanksgiving shouldn’t be the one day a personal sends those closest to him a note or text message or thanks them for all they do in person; it should be one of many. There are a few people in my life I would be so much more stressed or angry or upset without, and I try to slip that notion into their heads more than once a November. Being thankful shouldn’t be a yearly or even a monthly occasion; it should be regular.

Essentially, of course, Thanksgiving isn’t about locking oneself in a bedroom and typing out blog posts; it’s about spending time with the people for whom one does care. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I hope you’re all halfway into your food comas by now and have thanked those close to your hearts not for the first time this year. Have wonderful meals, create memories, and prepare yourself for Black Friday.

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Applying to a university is exactly what one chooses to make of it. I have friends who are applying only to local, in-state schools, and their workload consists of basic paperwork and perhaps an essay or two. As someone applying to several Ivy League universities, my job is considerably different. From my experience, the process of applying to an Ivy works something along these lines:

• Most Ivy League universities take the Common Application, available at commonapp.org. This August, the August preceding my final year of high school, I was able to create an account and begin assembling my list of prospective universities.
• The Common Application itself is not particularly difficult: It is broken down into several sections from basic paperwork (addresses, social security numbers, high school information, etc.) to extracurriculars and academics. At the end of the application, one is presented with two essays. The first is 250 words and requires one to elaborate on one of the aforementioned extracurriculars. (For those of you curious, I wrote on my two-year long career as a marching band drum major.) The second is approximately 500 words on one of five subjects. A list of these subjects and a bit of advice on each can be found here.

• While I was in the process of writing and revising my final essay, I created my list of universities to which I will submit applications, a list which includes Princeton, Yale, Cornell, and Brown. Each university requires a combination of teacher recommendations (ranging from two to three letters), an application submission fee, and the supplement. If there’s anything I look forward to finishing more, it’s the supplemental portion of the application.
• Because writing two essays for the Common App. isn’t enough for higher-level institutions, a fair deal more of writing is required. Most Ivies have between four and seven short answer questions ranging from 125 to 500 characters, and a few have a second personal essay. The difficulty of the short answer questions vary: One of Princeton’s is to simply list your favorite movies, quotes, and novels, while Yale asks “If you could witness one moment in history, what would it be and why?” The limited length of the response poses a challenge in being both insightful and succinct, and I’ve stayed awake more night than one wondering what my response should be.
• As is the case with most schools, Ivies require ACT/SAT scores sent straight from the College Board. If you’re especially confident going into these tests, there’s a space on the paperwork for having your scores submitted. If you choose to wait until your results come, there is a fee for sending these scores.

This weekend, I attended an informational meeting about Yale University, my top choice as far as where I would like to attend, and this is the advice I was able to take away about the entire applications process:

• Be yourself. If you’re considering applying to the Ivies, it can be assumed that you have an intelligent head

  on your shoulders. The university can see all of your shining little accomplishments on the Common App.; the supplemental questions are to judge the character of your mind, not the facts and figures contained within it. Besides, an essay with a personality is more eye-catching than one written by a thesaurus.

• Please apply to a backup school. This sounds obvious, but the chances of being accepted to an Ivy aren’t particularly high unless you’ve, say, gotten a perfect ACT score, were raised in a situation of family hardships, and have three patents to your name. Almost everyone applying is clever. Have somewhere to fall back.
• Start early. The Common App. opens August 1st, and most early decision deadlines are November 1st. Despite the fact that the standard application deadline is January 1st or 2nd, waiting until Novermber 14th to start applications can only lead to stress and screaming at walls, especially with the longer Ivy League apps. Starting early also means you have more time to revise and polish your application.
• Put your best foot forward. Odds are, you have a lot going for you, and you have several accomplishments. Stop worrying about being modest and showcase yourself. As I’ve been reminded, “Your competition isn’t just local – it’s national.” With Ivies, it’s worldwide. Your application versus the world. You go, Scott Pilgrim.

In my mind, the more difficult the application, the more rewarding the acceptance letter is. There are a thousand websites online with advice for essays, choosing a college, and your chances of being admitted. I particularly like the forum-based College Confidential. With universities, you get what you put in.

Now, back to my personal essay for Yale… (I wasn’t procrastinating, promise. I’m at 400/500 words, and my deadline is November first.)

A Few Photos from my Trips to Yale and Brown (click the image for full-sized versions):

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It’s been quite a while since I’ve had a new layout, yes? Usually, I download my WordPress themes straight from my dashboard, but I’ve discovered that (gasp) websites actually offer other themes; therefore, I spent the past half hour or so searching for something spiffy. I quite like this one.

Also, you may notice a new list on the right hand side of the page, “Internet People I Wish I Could Meet”. Initially, I was going to make a list of the other places you can find me on the Internet, but they’re all found on the “Contact Me” page, so it shifted to its current status. Hovering over each of the names will give you a brief description of them, but I’ve included those descriptions below for convenience:

Charlie McDonnell (maker of YouTube videos, member of the Trock band Chameleon Circuit): I think he’s wickedly clever, wonderfully talented, and just a generally good kid overall… and he writes songs about Doctor Who. Come on, that’s just kind of wonderful.

John Green (maker of YouTube videos, best-selling author) and Hank Green (maker of YouTube videos, singer of nerdy songs): Two of my favorite Internet people: Hank and John Green. What started as a year of textless communication turned into entertainment, information, and an absolutely brilliant community.

Kaleb Nation (maker of YouTube videos, author of YA/children’s novels): He was undoubtedly the reason that I started making YouTube videos. I’ve been following him since he first started making videos on this channel, and he still entertains me.

Kayley Hyde (maker of YouTube videos): She’s really quite clever, and I like the fact that she keeps YouTube vlogs what they should be. No nonsense, no distracting special effects, just intelligence and a healthy dose of Harry Potter.

By the time you read this post, I’m sure the page will already be created, so I’ll include this last bit: That list of Internet people I’d like to meet obviously wasn’t enough for me, so I’ve decided to make an “Assorted Randomness” page, which you can visit at the top of the screen. I’ll change the contents every so often, but it’s exactly what the title describes: pictures, music, lists, notes. Just things that have no place in a blog post of their own but are important in my head.

…and that, Internet, is all I have to say for the moment. As always, leave me comments. Send me e-mails. Subscribe. That is all.

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