Blogging. Really? You write a blog. Haha. Alright...
That was what I figured most people were secretly thinking when I told them I was starting to write a blog for the school way back in August 2008, even before the first day of class here at Mount Allison University.
At times I've wondered if anybody reads this. I mean, anybody besides the random person who looks for something on Google that I happen to have written about but who has no interest in Mount Allison. It turns out that even in the first few months people around campus seemed to recognize me and asked if I was Geoff and if I wrote a blog. It kind of helped, I suppose, that I chose the unoriginal name of Geoff at Mount Allison for a title. It was a pretty good feeling that some people actually got something out of what I was writing or it was at least mildly informative or entertaining.
Fast forward three years it's Friday, November 4, 2011 and I'm getting some coffee in between classes and someone I had never met before (details left out for privacy) came up to me and said
"Hi...umm...are you Geoff at Mt A?"
"Yeah"
"Well... umm...I'm (name) and I'm from (foreign country) and I read your blog"
I haven't written here regularly for quite a while partly out of busy-ness but also because I feel as though I've written on just about everything I can think of that would interest a perspective student looking at Mount Allison. The next part of this four-year narrative is about activities I'm involved in right now and then applying to graduate school which I'm also doing right now.
Long story short, I haven't been writing a lot lately so it was surprising to have someone tell me they had been reading my blog and it was important enough to them to tell me so. He said that over the time he was deciding to come to Mount Allison/waiting to come here he had read almost all of my posts (400+) and that the information and perspective I provided had factored in his decision to come here. We sat down to talk for a minute about why he came here and what he thinks about it so far. He eventually told me he's pursuing a specially approved major and when I started to say how it's great to be able to take classes from different disciplines he cut me off...he had read my blog.
So, not to say that everything I write on here is a gem , but if I helped someone learn more about what it's like here on a personal level and that influenced him (even slightly) then I feel as though it has been worth it to do all of that writing because coming here has been the best decision I've ever made.
In addition to any impact it has had on other people I honestly feel as though (and you can see for yourself by scrolling down and looking on the right-hand side) writing publicly has helped to dramatically improve my writing ability. Although a few times I have not been quite as diligent in proof-reading posts on here as say, my term paper; knowing that other people are going to read this makes it worth taking a second look. I encourage all of you to start blogging and I'm going to urge the school to encourage people to write about it (through the Student Blogger program I joined as a part of) because it was reading what other people wrote about Mount Allison (in whatever small way) that encouraged me to come here and helped allay my fears of coming out to what President Robert Campbell jokes is "not Manhattan".
Here's Seth Godin and Tom Peters on why you should start blogging:
That was what I figured most people were secretly thinking when I told them I was starting to write a blog for the school way back in August 2008, even before the first day of class here at Mount Allison University.
At times I've wondered if anybody reads this. I mean, anybody besides the random person who looks for something on Google that I happen to have written about but who has no interest in Mount Allison. It turns out that even in the first few months people around campus seemed to recognize me and asked if I was Geoff and if I wrote a blog. It kind of helped, I suppose, that I chose the unoriginal name of Geoff at Mount Allison for a title. It was a pretty good feeling that some people actually got something out of what I was writing or it was at least mildly informative or entertaining.
Fast forward three years it's Friday, November 4, 2011 and I'm getting some coffee in between classes and someone I had never met before (details left out for privacy) came up to me and said
"Hi...umm...are you Geoff at Mt A?"
"Yeah"
"Well... umm...I'm (name) and I'm from (foreign country) and I read your blog"
I haven't written here regularly for quite a while partly out of busy-ness but also because I feel as though I've written on just about everything I can think of that would interest a perspective student looking at Mount Allison. The next part of this four-year narrative is about activities I'm involved in right now and then applying to graduate school which I'm also doing right now.
Long story short, I haven't been writing a lot lately so it was surprising to have someone tell me they had been reading my blog and it was important enough to them to tell me so. He said that over the time he was deciding to come to Mount Allison/waiting to come here he had read almost all of my posts (400+) and that the information and perspective I provided had factored in his decision to come here. We sat down to talk for a minute about why he came here and what he thinks about it so far. He eventually told me he's pursuing a specially approved major and when I started to say how it's great to be able to take classes from different disciplines he cut me off...he had read my blog.
So, not to say that everything I write on here is a gem , but if I helped someone learn more about what it's like here on a personal level and that influenced him (even slightly) then I feel as though it has been worth it to do all of that writing because coming here has been the best decision I've ever made.
In addition to any impact it has had on other people I honestly feel as though (and you can see for yourself by scrolling down and looking on the right-hand side) writing publicly has helped to dramatically improve my writing ability. Although a few times I have not been quite as diligent in proof-reading posts on here as say, my term paper; knowing that other people are going to read this makes it worth taking a second look. I encourage all of you to start blogging and I'm going to urge the school to encourage people to write about it (through the Student Blogger program I joined as a part of) because it was reading what other people wrote about Mount Allison (in whatever small way) that encouraged me to come here and helped allay my fears of coming out to what President Robert Campbell jokes is "not Manhattan".
Here's Seth Godin and Tom Peters on why you should start blogging:
