The end of March 2020 saw the start of a change in the whole world, where the outbreak of a global pandemic resulted in lockdowns and isolation. Soon, systems started adapting and moved to completely virtual platforms. Life for us, as university students too, took a drastic turn. But in a world where going outside was constricted, we saw a huge turnout of people exploring inside their minds! Here’s to looking back on another year passed, and the 8th anniversary of the FOS Media Students’ Blog!
Where did we come from?
With its foundations lying in Alumni member, Pubudu Nawarathna‘s blog article, “ස්පෙෂල් ඉල්ලුම හා තුන් වන වසර”, the FOS Media Students’ Blog saw its birth in 2013 with a guide for applying to the Special Degree programs then available at the Faculty of Science. University life, being one filled with arduous hours of academics, exciting moments of sports, and the buzz of everyday relationships with the people around you, is one that is vividly colored.
Soon, these colors started to find their way into the pages of the first steps of the Blog. From the wispy tails of the Wesak lanterns in “විද්යා පීඨ වෙසක් මංගල්යය” to the physically active questions posed in “Sports and Satisfaction“, to the enlightening discourse of “වාහන වලින් පිටවන ඊයම් ප්රතිශතය සෙවීම“.
The explorative founding stones laid by these led to the creation of categories within the blog, Science and Technology, Free Thoughts, Art and Literature, Events, and Sports. Opening up an enormous platform for students to develop and showcase their talents in writing styles such as scientific chronicling, artistic expressionism, and debate, as well as event reporting, the FOS Media Students’ Blog appealed to both the Scientific and the General community of readers. With demand growing, soon the term “Science Weekly” began to be appearing on articles as a weekly science article too was published.
Where are we now?
At the turn of the 7th Anniversary of the Blog, the new challenge of maintaining and innovating the Blog to a new level was to be addressed. And amidst the new virtual environment, addressing it was done in the best style ever!
With warnings of COVID-19 urged through the Science Weekly section, and the loneliness isolation brought out echoed through the pages of Free Thoughts to a start, the biggest challenge was getting the Freshers involved in the Blog without the many heated sporting events that remain in everyone’s minds. Looking back, however, the Blog welcomed over 30 new Blogger profiles and over 10 new WordPress accounts this year!
Kicking off with an online workshop, the grizzling details of writing your very own blog post, to the advice and experiences of our past bloggers was shared to one of the largest crowds garnered at one of our online workshops. To most of our past bloggers, the challenge set forth by our beloved “Ramalka Akka” is always in memory, “Try to surpass my article count!”, with a smile. This year, we saw not one but two aspiring writers beat the challenge equally, hats off to both of you!
REVELATIO – 2020
With time progressing and stress mounting, the challenge of keeping the bloggers active and involved during the exam month came up. “Mid-sentence on a five-way call”, the team of editors brainstormed the online blogging challenge, REVELATIO 2020 in conjunction with the then-upcoming literary month.
And thus, a month filled with short stories, poems, and literary reviews went by where the best skilled and the most popular articles were decided on by a panel of judges. For the first time, an exam month was taken up in a storm with non-stop activity as the members of FOS Media were perusing the Blog, making this not only a competition, but a new category being added to the blog as well.
Nobel Week
This year, a new section of articles was thought of as a series. With exciting leaps being appreciated in the science community, came the idea for the Nobel week articles.
From a delve into the miraculous worth of the CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editor, to the poetic thoughts of Louise Glück, to the edges of the universe in an exploration of black holes, the Nobel week took a new turn on the value of the reading experience of the Blog.
Travel | Walking beyond memories…
The excitement started building up with bells and whistles as a new train was coming into the station. From those of you who were nostalgic for the outdoor experiences you had, came the second new category for the FOS Media Students’ Blog this year, Travel!
Waterfalls and exciting train rides awaited readers who were amused by the bat-caves of Kanneliya to the reminiscent campfires of Upper Diyaluma. A new blogging experience with maps embedded and memories shared, here’s a memory to the teaser video published by FOS Media to unveil the new category.
Where are we headed?
With all that and many more, we look back at over 350 articles for the year that was spent, the highest recorded for the blog as of yet, and that too in the wake of many parts of what makes university life, “university life” dissolving in the wake of a pandemic.
Here’s to an eventful and blossoming 8 years for the FOS Media Students’ Blog, and here’s to the future, filled with color, and experiences. Here’s to our Blog!
– The Editors 2020/21