Alexis Wilkins: I Found My Voice in My Love for America | Stories of Us

Gen Z'ers are really addicted to video games, into prescription drugs that numb how they feel. They're trying to practice escapism in any way they possibly can. My name is Alexis Wilkins, and this is my story. I'm a Gen Z'er, a musician, and a truth warrior. I'm an only child, and I was born in the U.S., but when I was really little, my family moved to England, and then Switzerland, and then back to the U.S., and we ended up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I grew up in a Christian home. My parents definitely taught me the role that God plays in all of our lives and in my life, and I think that that's definitely a huge part of who I am now. Kind of having a steady thread of a bigger purpose is something that's, I think, important. The reason I started writing music in the first place was to raise money for a organization that I believed in and a cause that I had read about when I was really young. And I went off and I wrote a song, and long story short, ended up recording it. And so from a really young age, I found purpose in a platform and helping other people, and that if I worked hard at this thing that I loved and used my voice for good, then I found fulfillment there. I love country music because it's the truth. We are writing stories that are the truth. We are writing our stories, and so country music is that for me. So Country Back is a song that I wrote, and it came from the idea of wanting more fiddle and steel and good old country music instruments that I grew up on and wanting more patriotism in the country. And so this common kind of idea title came to me with Country Back. ♪ Back in old school was mainstream, radio was always clean ♪ ♪ People read their news and ink, steel guitar was on everything ♪ ♪ Folks lined up to hear straight sing, write this down, long live the king ♪ ♪ Drop a needle down on a vinyl, windows down, just driving four miles ♪ ♪ It feels like it's been a while, when the American dream was a Cadillac ♪ ♪ And the red, white, and blue showed in how you act, things you got, you worked for ♪ ♪ You didn't think twice about not locking your door ♪ ♪ When people did the right thing with no one around, they looked at each other and found common ground ♪ ♪ From the music to the flag, I ain't living in the past, I'm just saying that, I want my country back. ♪ I was already working full-time in country music when I was applying to college. I went to Belmont University and I was in a comparative politics class. The professor started class out every day with 15 minutes of German punk and wouldn't really touch on the reading that we were supposed to do, but it would end up a class discussion about kind of what was going on. Of course, this was in the height of the 2016 election, so people were very passionate, as was I, which I think showed the professor that I wasn't being indoctrinated at the rate at which he wanted to indoctrinate students. And I love school. I have always done my work. I have never gotten a B. I am a huge school fan. It's just always been something about me, but at the end of the semester, I checked my grade and I received an F with no explanation. I was looking at degree works and kind of where you input your work and see what got graded, and ultimately, he just didn't put the work that I turned in into my degree works at all. So I go to the dean of the political science department, who had had me in class previously, knows I do good work, and so through several meetings with him, creating a binder of my work and my creation dates from my computer to show that I did do the work on time and turn it in, we did ultimately get the grade turned into a passing grade. And the president of the school didn't seem surprised at this behavior. He kind of went, yeah, when you told me which professor it was, I fully anticipated that. And so the fact that the president was aware of this but couldn't do anything about it because of the way that colleges work and tenure professors and blowback from it was fascinating to me. It's unsettling, I think, conditioning-wise to have this goal that you set out for yourself to graduate from college, to get a degree, and everything you're doing along the way is compromising you and your principles. It promotes division, it promotes victimhood, and it doesn't promote a successful and hardworking upcoming generation. We are lonelier, we are on our phones more, we have access, widespread access, to really anything we need. We've had no military draft, we have no wartime application, we have Postmates. You know, everything is instant gratification. We have the most opportunity in generations that we've ever had in the United States, and kids still act like there might be more for them. You know, their TikTok didn't go viral, so they're really upset about it. And I think it comes from this ideology that we are victims. I think that kids are searching for identity, they're searching for values, they're looking for it on social media. Kids that aspire to be Instagram famous for the sake of being Instagram famous, which is, you know, when you're looking to your phone, or you're looking towards a screen, or a faceless community of online members, you're not really building relationships. Kids and people my age on antidepressants is more common than it used to be. There's an epidemic of parents not knowing what to do with this generation, and I think that a solution can sometimes be searched for when really it's just like, go outside and play like we used to. I know that's oversimplifying, but it is kind of the togetherness, I think, always brought everyone back to center. You know, playing outside, riding our bikes until the lights turned off. I don't want to be the last generation that did that. I think we see so much more loneliness because they're trying to practice escapism in any way they possibly can. So if it's being really addicted to video games, or into prescription drugs that numb how they feel, or any of the things that really people try and, I think, subscribe to just to feel something. This generation, because social media is this assumed platform that you get on, you know, if you're standing in line, you get on social media. You know, we all kind of fall into it. And I realized a couple years ago that even though my job kind of had to participate in social media, whether it's, you know, a political opinion, or an article I wrote, or a song that I'm releasing, has to have a home on social media. I think that maybe not getting into the doom scroll world is what's kept me sane. And it's hard because I notice that when people do just stand there and they're not on their phones, even in line at the grocery store, they're awkward. To that, I would say, don't just scroll. Be conscious if you are scrolling. I mean, it's a lot of the simple things. Follow news sources that you trust. Make a conscious effort to not follow accounts that are going to have you, you know, sad about your own life, or I know that there's a lot of comparison on socials. Just, it's honestly an easier thing to avoid, I think, than people make it out to be. Just be mindful and use your better judgment, and you're going to be okay. My advice is that bravery is contagious. And so standing up and representing the way that you feel might be the thing that gets someone else to say, hey, wait, I feel that way too. And then all of a sudden, you're not alone. And for this generation to show that example, I think, is huge, because we either course correct where we're going or we don't. And my advice to you would be speak up, stand up, and it's not as scary as it seems like it is. Thanks for watching this video. To keep PragerU videos free, please consider making a tax-deductible donation.