Max Kutner

It's been almost four years since I became Mads Vassar. What began as an attempt to document my freshman year has since become something way bigger than me, something I hope has left a lasting impact on our school. As my blog approaches one million site visits and I approach my final days at Vassar, I appreciate this opportunity to take a look back at the four years I have spent at this institution.

It was September 2007 and the "two-week rule" was just about up. My hallmates and I from the ninth floor of Jewett had gotten into some shenanigans the previous night and I wanted to write them down somewhere. I didn't know much about blogging — the only one I read was Perez Hilton ­— and I Googled "how to start a blog." Within minutes, I made my first post. "Learned from 9/15," I wrote. "1. Vampire Weekend is our new favorite band. 2. Vassar Teknowledgy can throw a PARTAY. 3. Noyes throws the best pregame." I'll save myself the embarrassment and stop there. I called the blog "From The Top of Jewett" and it was official; I was a blogger.

As it turned out, freshmen all over campus took interest in the antics of my friends and me. Views increased and within a few days, I knew it was time to get serious. I needed a name change and wanted something like Perez Hilton, an ethnic take on an existing celebrity. My hallmate went to a baby-naming website and we decided on Mads, the Danish form of Matthew. Meanwhile, I kept posting and people kept reading. I wrote about hallcest, Naps pizza, and labeled a few people as "hot messes." There, on the small screens of Mac notebooks everywhere, all of my awkward freshman experiences became preserved forever in the depths of the interweb.

In November, the site hit 30,000 visits. I started to feel a need to post real news, and soon, I was able to get it. I kept my ears open, joined orgs, and made connections. By springtime, I was posting exclusives on M.I.A. and interviewed Rye Rye.

The following semester, I got in over my head. Publicly, I was giving Admissions tours, serving on the the Vassar College Entertainment's (ViCE) Executive Board, and playing big brother to my ten fellowees. In private though, I was moderating hundreds of comments as the "Kick Coke" scandal erupted. All of the sudden, I was no longer the only one posting on my blog. Posts were hitting fifty, one hundred, two hundred comments each, and they got so malicious that the Miscellany News published a staff editorial on the dangers of anonymous commenting. I felt like my blog was being taken away from me. I had trouble sleeping, overwhelmed with all of my responsibilities, both online and IRL. I disabled anonymous commenting and breathed a sigh of relief.

Over the next two and a half years — and two thousand posts — the blog evolved into a more responsible source for campus news. I dropped the sarcastic tone, changed the layout, and posted more exclusives. Meanwhile, off-line, I declared a film major, led another ViCE committee, and went abroad to Paris and Prague. I took a semester away from Mads while an anonymous helper updated the Twitter account. I was worried about losing my readership, but enjoyed being able to drink wine by the Seine and eat baguettes and cheese and not have to worry about campus life. The following fall, I came back to campus as a TH-inhabiting, Dutch-attending senior. The readers came back and once again, I was Mads.

I'm glad I got to live as both Max and Mads. I spent senior year directing a thesis documentary and helping organize Founder's Day. Ironically, last week I made it on to another blog under a new pseudonym: Taco Bro. Maybe that Hipster Runoff photo of me in a Taco costume with Toro y Moi is indicative of what my freshman self would have wanted from Vassar: fifteen seconds of internet fame.

So what is the fate of Mads after I leave Vassar for good? As I've explained here, the blog has been closely tied with my Vassar experience, and I don't know if it can mean the same thing for someone else. At the same time, the blog is an important alternative to other campus publications and has established itself in Vassar culture. (Just check Vassar's Wikipedia page.) For now, I'm logging off, but maybe someday another wide-eyed freshman will ask me for the password.

Thanks to everyone who helped me along the way: my friends, who have been there since Mads' beginning, the tipsters who kept it going, and the readers who kept coming back for more. It's been a pleasure writing for you.

—Max Kutner is the creator of madsvassarblog.com.