Closing Time
Experimenters,
This is a very hard post to write. I’ve been thinking about it all day and I’ve been dreading it. This is because it is my sad task to tell you that The Freshmen Experiment is coming to an end… at least in this incarnation. After lots of discussion, we have decided that the website it too all-consuming for us to do without major tech support and too expensive to do with major tech support. It’s been a hard decision to make, but now that our freshmen are no longer freshmen, we have decided that this is the right time to suspend the site.
The suspension won’t take effect immediately. Brian and I have a few more tricks up our sleeves. We plan to finish off “Last Week’s Alcohol” and we even have a few surprises to share, but our bloggers will stop blogging at the end of this week, and we will finish off our songs soon thereafter, and our experiment will be complete.
For me, this has been a beautiful and illuminating experience. I have laughed and cried at some of the posts and comments. I am more proud of some of the songs we’ve written for this project than of anything else we’ve ever written. Partly it’s because they felt so real to us, but I think it’s also the attempt to take the words of our kick-ass bloggers and turn them into lyrics and melodies.
And then there are the relationships that we’ve developed with the readers which has been something different than anything I’ve experienced before. If any of you all-star commenters come to a concert of ours, please introduce yourselves. You’ve been a crucial part of this special and incredibly personal project.
Two great pieces of news come out of this. One is that there’s no way we won’t try this again. It was way too much fun and we learned way too much not to put it to good use - only next time we’ll have a videographer, sound designer, web designer, tech consultant, and a marketing firm… oh yeah, our plans are BIG. The second is more immediate. CC will continuing blogging on her own new website. Brian and I will follow wherever she goes, of course, and beg her to let us write songs based on her writing on occasion. Maybe she’ll even let us guestblog for a week or two here and there (hint hint)…
You can always find me on my new lyrics blog (www.kerrigan-lowdermilk.com/lyrics), where you should comment because it’s very lonely there without you. Even after the experiment is completely finished, this website will still be here for you to come back in wistful moments and read / listen to your favorite posts. Please do. I know I will.
Thank you guys for everything. You have made this site what it is.
I’ll miss this! Please post where we can find Christine’s blogs. Thanks for all the fun.
It has been wonderful, but of course- there are always new things to move to! You should all be extremely proud of yourselves.
love, peace, and rest
m.
This has been wonderful, and I have to say that I have a lot of respect now for the work you guys do. This whole idea was genius, and you pulled it off. Like Matthew ^ said, you should be proud of what you achieved. I’m excited to see what come up with next! I only wish I had found out about this experiment sooner…
And three cheers for CC and PC! It’s been really wonderful reading their posts, and if they carry on their blogs somewhere else, I’ll probably keep on reading. I hope links to CC’s new blog is posted!
Anyway, thank you all for being so open and for sharing so much. It was really appreciated, and I wish you all the best in whatever comes next for all of you.
But since this isn’t technically over yet, I’ll just say that I’m really, really looking forward to Last Week’s Alcohol (…and these mysterious tricks up your sleeve! :D)
Gringa
I’ve been reading since very nearly the beginning, and I’d like to applaud you guys for keeping my attention that long. I tend to be a bit internet-ADD…
I think this was such a great idea. I’ve been inspired to write a lot about my own freshman year because of this (but it’s all in documents on my computer, not online). It’s a crazy time and I don’t want to forget about it (though… I do have chunks of my memory from last weekend missing already… oops!).
Anyway… Thank you. That’s really all that needs to be said, I think. (:
Je suis tres triste.
That’s my French lessons in Paris saying I’m very sad. I’ll keep up to date on your stuff, and read CC’s new blog. I’m trying to keep it short and sweet because it’s not really goodbye.
Best of luck and thank you.
I can’t believe this experiment is coming to an end.
I have never posted on here before, but I have been reading almost form the beginning. I was a freshman last year at a school in another state and had no clue what I was getting myself into. On one particularly dull or lonely night (which became few and far between as my year went on) I stumbled upon this website and fell in love. You made me laugh, cry, nod my head in agreement, and sigh at the recognition of people I knew or myself in these snapshots into CC and PC’s lives.
The innovation, raw emotion, and universal feelings in both the blogs and the music are frighteningly parallel to my own college experience. In a way it is everyone’s college experience. Every high and low is the same, but we all feel like we are the first ones to endure it. This let me know I wasn’t the only one.
So, coming from a wallflower, thank you for saying everything I wanted to scream from my dorm’s rooftop but instead cried into my pillow. It’s not goodbye, it’s until another time.
Thank You.
WF
dang…this sucks. I was trapped working as a camp counselor in the middle of no where with no computer and I come back to see something I love so dearly end….
It was fun!