I do realise celebrating the birthday of a website is somewhat odd, but at the same time, I’m doing it. Happy Birthday Blog!!
Helloooooooo!
I’m taking a moment to wish this blog a happy 9th birthday.
The Student Health and Wellbeing Blog kicked off on 19 July 2017, which means that, as of today, it has been ticking along for nine years. You can still read my hopeful first post.
At the time of writing, we are sitting at 1738 posts.
That works out to roughly 193 posts per year, or about 3.7 posts per week across the life of the blog. That’s not bad actually!
I’ve only written birthday posts twice before, when the blog turned 6 and 7. Apparently, I skipped its 8th birthday, which feels a little rude in hindsight.
So this year, with the blog turning 9, the start of Semester 2 upon us, and a new group of students joining Flinders mid-year, it feels like a good time to take stock.
When I first started the blog, I wanted a place to share what I was learning about mental health, wellbeing, productivity and student life in academia. It was partly a public journal, partly a professional development project, and partly a way of making useful ideas more available to students.
Over time, the blog grew into something broader. It became a place to let students know what was happening in the wellbeing space at Flinders: programs, workshops, supports, resources, research opportunities, events, guest posts, service updates, and the occasional Gareth-thinks-out-loud-about-something post.
For a long time, the blog sat mostly on its own as a collection of articles.
Now the blog powers much of the content on BetterU, our student wellbeing hub. It is one of the main ways we keep BetterU fresh, useful and connected to what is actually happening across the University.
Another big shift is that we now have students on placement with us who are creating content for their peers, which has made me incredibly happy.
A wellbeing blog written only by staff will always have its limits. Staff can bring expertise, experience and institutional knowledge, but students bring something different: immediacy, honesty, lived experience, creativity, and a much better sense of what student life actually feels like now.
Because of placements, we now have a growing collection of student posts, sitting alongside the many guest posts contributed by staff, students and partners over the years. I’ve stated before, that in the longer-term I’d like to see almost 50% of content here being student-created. We’ve got a way to go to make that happen, but we’ve started, and we’ve started well.
The blog has also quietly shaped my work in ways I didn’t fully expect. Many of my collaborations nowadays have come about because students or staff became aware of something I was doing through the blog. A post becomes a conversation. A conversation becomes a project. A project becomes something useful for students. It is very much responsible for how I’ve found my groove at Flinders.
But I don’t want to just rest on our laurels.
We are currently rethinking the BetterU newsletter, shifting from a more automated update to something more crafted, thoughtful and useful. We are also continuing to work out what BetterU should look and feel like visually, including how to make it better reflect the community it represents.
That means the blog’s next chapters probably won’t just be about writing more posts. It will be about finding better ways to connect those posts with students, services, programs, teaching, newsletters, campaigns and community. And I really feel I have the same energy for it now that I did when I started.
Nine years in, I still have tonnes of things I want to write about. I still have ideas I want to explore. I still have programs and resources I want students to know about. And I definitely want to support more students to find their own voice on the blog. Find my replacements, so to speak.
Anyway, I’m not entirely sure how one celebrates the birthday of a blog. I don’t know if blogs need cake. I don’t know if WordPress has feelings (I assume in the world of AI, it is getting more likely). But writing this article feels like at least part of the celebration.
So, thank you.
Thank you to everyone who reads the blog, shares posts, sends ideas, contributes articles, suggests improvements, or quietly lets me know that something was useful.
Thank you to the students and staff who have helped shape the blog’s content over the years.
Thank you to the IDS team who keep the WordPress platform ticking along and respond to my sometimes-annoying technical questions.
And thank you to Student Life for making this channel possible.
The Student Health and Wellbeing Blog has been one of the most important parts of my work here at Flinders. I’m deeply appreciative that it exists, that I’ve been able to grow alongside it, and that it continues to have a role in supporting student wellbeing.
Happy 9th birthday, blog buddy.
May we reach your 10th having grown, developed, and found even more ways to be useful.
