Applicant #8: Alesha Willis

Alesha Willis is a 22-year-old from Florence.

Alesha's video application:

Alesha online:

+ Twitter
+ Facebook

Alesha's current situation:

My name is Alesha Willis and I am a 22 year old student at UNA who is graduating this May with a Bachelors in Business Administration in Accounting and a minor in Spanish. Then, in June, I will be marrying my high school sweetheart and best friend. I am also a “mommy” to my two enormous labs. I worked at a local restaurant for four years and held other jobs as well, but I recently began working at the headquarters of one of Florence’s internationally successful companies.

Alesha's blog post:

From ages 18 to 25 we are experiencing some of the most interesting and memorable years of our lives. We are building new relationships with classmates, coworkers, and those in our communities. We have the energy of teenagers and a determination far beyond our years. Our generation is strong-willed, technologically savvy, and engaged in the world around us. So what should we do with all of this ability?

Make the most of it! 

Although YouTube can be used for nonsensical entertainment (those guilty pleasures like the teenage kid lip-syncing “Teenage Dream”), we can also utilize the website to take a stand for what matters to us. We have a global platform and the freedom to express ourselves to the world, an outlet that is new to our generation. The same rings true for our other forms of social media. We could simply play Farmville day and night on Facebook, or we could take a little time out of our day to reach out to a friend having a hard time, post an event that’s important to the community, or start a discussion about what’s really going on in the world, digging deeper than mere small talk.

Keeping in mind the power of the technological advances in our society, we should never forget the power of a speech. Blogs, videos, text messages, and e-mails are effective tools of communication, but face-to-face interaction is even more valuable. Nothing compares to the bond formed by meeting someone face-to-face. Text messages are deleted, blogs are forgotten, but actual human interaction has the ability to reach people on a more meaningful level.

We should also use our abilities to help ourselves. We should not stunt our own potential by being shortsighted individuals. The ease of spending money with credit cards and online shopping is undoubtedly convenient, but we ought not treat our “current selves” like kings and queens, leaving our “future selves” out in the cold. If we spend our paycheck on the ridiculously expensive brand of jeans instead of the more typical brand that looks just as good, and leave ourselves no money for the cable bill, what “treat” are we truly giving ourselves? If we buy a fancy-named coffee 5 times a week instead of making a cup at home, how much money are we losing in just a week’s time? I believe in treating oneself well, but we should always remember to make conscious decisions with our finances and otherwise. We live in a great country, but we are still living in a time of economic hardship, where jobs aren’t as readily available as they were before, and gas prices c ontinue climbing. In order to truly treat ourselves we must create financial stability for the unexpected turns in life.

We are an intelligent and capable generation, capable of making prosperous lives for ourselves and big differences in the world, and if we take a little time to think, we can achieve everything we desire in life.

Alesha