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 :)

Polise

There's this thing in the world today called gender inequality.  Gender inequality meaning that the genders are not considered equal.

This is a problem for many reasons.

The first being that there is no reason for it.  The only thing that determines your gender is how your chromosomes are combined in the womb, so that shouldn't have any affect on how your treated in society.  The genders should be treat equally, because we are indeed equal.

Any female should be able to do what any male can do.  There shouldn't be certain things that only boys can do simply because they are boys.

This belief, the belief that the genders are considered equal is called feminism.

This came up in a conversation between my pal Abbi and I once.

We were talking about unfair social standards, and I jokingly said, "I think I'm going to try to be the first female pope."   This of course, was just a cheesy joke made by yours truly, but Abbi decided to take it further.

The next thing I knew, I had a text that had this picture in it.

Yes, that is my face photoshopped onto the pope's body.

The reason my face looks so maniacal is because the picture used to create this lovely photo came from this:

Now if we zoom in further on me we get this.

Ah yes, this flattering picture of me is what was used to create the pope picture which is know known as the Polise (pope + elise = polise).  Now I know what you're thinking, but I want you to know that this picture was taken right after I swam a mile (that's 66 laps in a pool) in a full out sprint, and I assure that no one looks good after that.

I learned a lot of things through the course of the construction of this picture.

One being that Abbi is a photoshop savage, and also that I should not take pictures of myself minutes after doing hard physical exertion.

I know this blog post just seems like it's about how un-photogenic I am, but there is actually a point.

You should never be afraid to follow your dreams.  I don't actually want to become the first female pope, but I still have dreams that aren't exactly conventional.

I kind of want to start and all girls competitive kickball team called the Lady Ballers.  It sound really dumb, I know, but think about it.  How fun would it be to be on an all girls kickball team?

Anyone can follow do whatever they set their mind if they really go for it.

I mean in Legally Blonde, Elle Woods got into Harvard, and no one thought she could do it, but she worked hard and she accomplished what she wanted to accomplish.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is follow your dreams, because you can do what ever you want.

And in the spirit of life insurance, I'm going to end this post by quoting American Family Insurance:

"You're dream is out there, go get it."

Peace out girl scouts.

Elise :)