An Ode to Ellen

Dear Ellen DeGeneres,

I know you don't know that I exist, I'm just your average teenager trying to graduate high school by writing in a blog.  But here's the thing Ellen — you are probably the greatest human person alive.

You were the voice of Dory, who in my mind, is one of the greatest literary heroes of our time, and you did it so well.  I was pretty young when Finding Nemo came out, and before I saw it, I had walked out of every movie I had ever gone to see.  Your movie was the first movie I didn't walk out of, Ellen.

You played never have I ever with One Direction.  First of all, just being in the same room as them would be the coolest experience of my life, but you asked them embarrassing questions on live television, and you did it with the class and calmness, which is something I definitely wouldn't have done.

You had Justin Bieber on your show, and you high-fived him.  You high-fived Justin Bieber.

I mean just look at that smile.
Courtesy of: Boston.com

Ellen you've had a lot of great moments with celebrities and have made a lot of funny memories for me and the rest of the world, but most importantly, you're a really good person.  You may not know it Ellen, but the things you've done to try to just make the world a better place have had an amazing impact.

You started the #BeKindToOneAnother campaign, which encourages people to do simple, everyday, random acts of kindness.  It may not seem important.  No, holding the door open for someone isn't going to change their life, but it may just put a smile on their face, and that smile on their face may put a smile on someone else's face, and that smile might just encourage that person to change the world.

You've done amazing things for the LGBT community.

You've donated money to kids suffering from cancer, and given them a chance to be on your show and tell their story.

You have hand-picked people to be on your show because they've done kind things for other people, and Ellen, let me tell you, they aren't doing that on the Today Show.

Ellen, you're great, and don't let anybody tell you differently.

You're on from three to four on weekdays, so I really don't get a chance to watch your show live that often, but if you were to go through my Youtube history, 90% of it would be clips from your show.

I think you're awesome, Ellen, and I wouldn't want you to change a thing.

So keep doing what you're doing, and remember that when a teenage girl was assigned to write who their ideal blog reader would be, I chose you.

Keep it real, and try to commit a random act of kindness today.  You'de be surprised how far it could go.

All the best.
Elise :)

So It Happened Again

In one of my recent posts, titled A Series of Unfortunate Events, I explained the details of how I embarrassed myself at a swim meet.

Well here we are, and it has happened again.

Last night, at our last home meet where we honored the seniors, I yet again did something embarrassing.

When swimming an event, you step up onto the blocks, the starter says "swimmers, take your mark", then a buzzer sounds and you dive off.

On my 100 free, I did everything as I normally do.  Stepped up, got ready, and bent down when instructed.

The only thing I didn't quite get the hang of is the diving off part.

I'm still not really sure what happened — it was all kind of a blur, but all I remember is not hearing the buzzer go off.  The rest of the people in my heat were half way down the pool and I honestly thought the buzzer still hadn't gone off.


I looked up, and realized that the buzzer had in fact gone off.  I don't know what went through my mind at that moment, but I guess I thought the most logical solution was to just fall off the block.
So I did.  I fell off the block and hopped out of the water.  I didn't swim the event.

Here's a picture of the thing I fell off of.
Courtesy of: http://www.neptune.k12.nj.us/Page/835 

At first, I was pretty gosh darn embarrassed.  I was laughing really loudly and aggressively, but that was just to cover up my complete and utter embarrassment at what I had just done.

Everyone was really supportive, and it helped.  The coach said, this is a direct quote, "I'm not that mad", and that made me feel much better.  The aftermath was not as bad as I thought it would have been, and after talking to my mom, I was no longer physically shaking from distress.

But by the time my next event came around, it was like it was happening all over again.

The event was a relay, so the three other girls in my relay told me that they would scream 'go' when the buzzer went off so I wouldn't mess up again.  I was laughing, because it was funny and by that time I was over it, but honestly I was nervous it was actually going to happen again, and I wasn't only going to screw it up for myself, I was going to screw it up for everybody.

I didn't though.  I dove off the block when the buzzer went off and everything was fine.  Well not really fine, but I was relieved I didn't embarrass myself for the second time that night.

Overall it was a good night and I had a lot of fun sending off the seniors (we all made two parallel lines and the seniors walked through the lines with their parents and there were balloons and I was an emotional mess).  I guess it must be something about high school meets, because never before this year have I done so many embarrassing things in such a short period of time.

There's a meet next week, and we can all only hope I won't fall off the block again.

Have a good life, and clean out your ears, because you never know what you'll need to hear.

Elise :)

One Small Step For Man

Courtesy of: embodiedastrology.com

There are people that believe that the moon landing is a hoax.  They believe that the whole thing was an elaborate scheme by the government.

I believe in freedom of belief, and there's nothing wrong with thinking that.  I get it, the government can be frustrating.

Personally, I believe that it happened.  I can't think of a reason why the government would make up walking on the moon, but if they did in fact make the whole thing up then there was probably a good reason.

The moon landing may have been a hoax — but I like to think it wasn't.

We're (at least those of you living in America) Americans.  We believe in hot dogs and baseball and pick-up trucks and most importantly, we believe in dreaming big.  We work hard and don't take no for an answer and we're a country built on the mentality that anything is possible.

We've made iPhones and Google.  Elvis and Michael Jackson.  Sloppy Joes and Mac n' Cheese.  There may be a lot of things wrong with America, but the state of dreaming we live isn't one of them.

So maybe we didn't land on the moon.  Maybe it was in fact shot in a hollywood film lot and maybe Neil Armstrong's famous line "One small step for man, one giant leap for man kind" was written by an intern in a stuffy conference room.  Maybe none of this was true, but what's wrong with believing it?

When man landed on the moon it showed the world that anything truly can happen.  We left the planet — and that's pretty amazing.

Most people would have looked up at the night sky and saw the moon and thought, "I wonder what it's like up there?"  We looked up at the moon and thought, "I'm going to find out what's up there."

Even if the whole thing was a hoax, I don't think I'll ever stop believing that it wasn't.  The day that a person walked on something we thought was so untouchable was a day that we all remember because it showed us that we can do anything.

So let the conspiracy theorists think what they want.

All I know is that I'm going to continue believing, because it's nice to think that if you reach for the stars, there's a chance that you can actually get there.

Aim high.  You may just make it even higher.
Elise :)