Lesson #001: You're Not in [Insert Hometown Here] Anymore...

Lesson #001: You’re not in [insert hometown here] anymore.

Hello, buff and blue Colonials! I am Matthew Scott, a sophomore in The George Washington University School of Business, majoring in business administration and concentrating in marketing with a minor in creative writing! This is my very first blog and it is absolutely exciting.

Aside from blogging and being a GW student, I am a STAR! STAR is an acronym for Student Admissions Representative so, in short, I give tours. On Twitter, Peter Konwerski (follow him at @GWPeterK—voted the best administrator with Twitter on GWU’s website!), the Dean of Students, once tweeted me with the hashtag “#alwayswalkingbackwards” in reference to the agility and balance of STARs moving in reverse. This is completely true, except when walking down stairs, which can be rather dangerous if not a seasoned STAR, as pointed out by one of my tour participants earlier today.

Typically, once a week, I stand before a crowd of people telling them who I am in a brief structured phrase. I take a handful of those people and tell them more about my day-to-day life at GW as a sophomore in the School of Business majoring in business administration with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in creative writing. It’s all too often, however, that I forget that I am a 19-year old from the standard suburban township of West Orange, New Jersey, a far cry from the streets of the GWU campus and the shadow of President Barack Obama and the storied White House he calls “home”. In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy soon came to realize she wasn't in Kansas anymore and, in the same sense, GW students aren't in wherever we each call home anymore.

One of the very first pictures I took with my friends freshman year, on the steps of the one and only Lincoln Memorial!

A city full of history and novelty, the District of Columbia has a lot to offer. GW is different in that it interacts with the city in its own unique way. As a blogger, as a STAR, and as a GW student, I feel it is my personal mission to share how a normal student interacts with the environment afforded to GW students. I am a Colonial Army spirit ambassador, a Residence Hall Association event planner (in short!), and, among many other activities, a connoisseur of all things buff and blue, as only GWU could provide.

Through my blogs, I plan to take you for a ride with me as I experience life as a GW student and recall day-to-day life, as well as some of the most heart-stopping, unbelievable, #onlyatgw moments. Life at GW is anything but boring and, in my blogs, you’ll see just that! Let's begin this journey together.

Setting sail, your tour guide,

Matt