It has been, admittedly, very fun to write a blog for every pair of eyeballs that has looked for or wandered their way onto this page.

From day 1 I had a scheme, you see, I applied for this position knowing full well that it was in the advertisement of Stan State, making any content I created for this or related platforms needing to be approved and acceptable by the standards of Stanislaus.

“Oh ho,” I said to myself, “why of course, I’d be happy to follow those regulations.” I said, secretly already planning on making a blog post reviewing my favorite bathrooms on campus.

Okay, there wasn’t really a scheme, but there was a goal:

“What if I made it fun?”

From my posts: “Powering through the Semester with DANCE” and “Nathan’s Top 3 Bathrooms of Stan State”

Sponsored content is a tricky web that you can easily get tangled up in, just ask Greg Jacquay or anyone else over at the KCSS radio station about how many words, phrases, and even ideas they have to turn down in order to maintain their non-profit status. Similarly, when you’re being paid to produce content, you’re not just needing to be true to yourself and who your audience is, suddenly you also have to be true to your boss too.

And on that hierarchy of people to be true to, you the content creator come last my friend.

I, in my infinite and wise knowledge of having grown into a grizzled and jaded old man in my decade of heavy internet usage, having seen sponsored content birth and die at alarming rates, looked at that hierarchy, shook my old-man staff at it and said: “Bah humbug.”

I’ve lived a happy life, truthfully, and I’ve been granted dozens and dozens of privileges that I’m sure I don’t even know of yet. So when asking myself what I can bring to the table as a unique voice, I ended up with “Educatedly Stupid.”

I wanted to be as authentic as possible while still fulfilling my role as an ambassador of the university, and for me, to be authentic meant to show off more than a little of my zany innards. If you scroll up to the top of this page even, you’ll see the words that I wrote up there from day one: “A Student’s sillily serious studies surrounding Stan State”.

In truth, I can’t give advice on being a first-generation student, a returning student, someone who works three jobs, is starting a family, or any of those situations because it’s simply not my life experience, and I don’t want to pretend like it is either, because that just means being  inauthentic which, see above, I’ve seen fail as a content strategy time and time again (sometimes even as I’m the one doing the failing!).

If you want to read the life-experience from a hardcore Stan State student working, like, a million jobs, raising a kid, and somehow inexplicably keeping a big smile on her face throughout the whole ordeal then you should read up on the Stan State, with love, Aliyah archive where there’s tons of great posts on mindfulness, self-care, and the balancing act that is college.

 

 

If you want to read the life-experience from an incredibly intelligent student working towards his Masters in social work (because the man has a big heart and a passion for change!) then you need to read Manny Nuñez | As you should 🙂 for vulnerable and insightful journaling from a student on his road through grad school.

 

If you want to read the life-experience from a somewhat quirky college kid whose made and will continue to make lots of mistakes, but ultimately tries to entertain people and make the world just a little bit better through that…

Well in that case, I’m flattered that you’re here and reading 🙂

This is the end of the blog. I’m graduating, off to spread my wings and soar into the still pandemic-stricken world that will surely accept me with open arms and nothing bad will happen to me ever (I’m sure that’s how that works), but I will be far from gone.

If you want to revisit some of my favorite blog posts that I’m pretty proud of, you can check out the Hall of Fame page.

If you want to hear me in a different context, enthusiastically talking about the craziness of studying abroad amidst a pandemic, you can check out my guest-appearance on the Warriors Abroad Podcast.

And if you want to hear some of my more extended ramblings in a more produced fashion, you can listen to my Fun Facts Featuring Nathan recurring segment on the KCSS podcast page.

But beyond that? I don’t know what I’ll be doing, but knowing me I’ll always be creating something. You can follow my Twitter @NathanaelHeisl1 and I’m sure sometime somewhere I’ll stop reposting hilarious cats and start talking about something exciting I’m doing 🙂

To everyone who read, who thanked me in person, in the comments, or who shocked me by even knowing of this blog’s existence in the first place: Thank You.

Good-night sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.