Unbreakable’s Birthday
By: Connor Lenahan
Tomorrow will officially mark the one year mark since I began posting things on Unbreakable. This has been, without a doubt, the best decision I have made in a long time. I love getting to write every single day. It makes me happy. I love that people seem to enjoy what I post. That makes it even better. It allows me to continue to do what I love. I just love everything about this.
I say it a lot, but thank you all for the support. It means more to me than I could ever properly express.
Timing issues had me flip ideas for articles between tomorrow morning and tonight, so we are celebrating early. In honor of one year of posting, I give you a look behind the curtain at the ten most read articles I’ve posted in the past year and my little reflections on them.
10. Frequently Asked Question – June 13, 2014
I only posted this two weeks ago, but the reception from the Boston University community has been overwhelmingly sweet. I had a few administrators mention they had read this and loved it. This made me exceptionally happy, because I meant every single thing I said in here. I truly do love BU, and I want to make it a better place for everyone that chooses to call it home.
9. Matt McGloin: Role Model – August 9, 2013
At the time I wrote this, Matt McGloin was projected to get a few throws in the preseason for the Oakland Raiders. My hometown of Scranton and I were incredibly proud of him just for fighting his way onto an NFL team after going undrafted. In the months after this came out Matt went on to climb above Matt Flynn and Terrell Pryor on the depth chart to become the starting quarterback for the Raiders for a few weeks with undeniable success. This made me incomparably happy. I’ve been blessed with meeting Matt on multiple occasions and getting to know his family even more. All of them are sheerly delightful, and there is no one more deserving of this success than them.
8. A Great Man – April 24, 2014
Mike Barrett was an angel in this world and an angel in the next. We all miss him beyond words.
7. The Discovery – February 4, 2014
I’m not sure there’s ever been a moment in my life that could top the giddiness I felt when I opened my copy of Dreams from My Father to find it was autographed on the inside cover by President Obama. This is probably still the craziest thing to happen to me, which is really saying something.
6. End of the Road – March 11, 2014
This accidentally became the eulogy for the most incredibly dominant basketball team I’ve ever had the pleasure to watch. From 2012-2014 there was almost no one that could match up to the Abington Heights men’s basketball team. I’m relatively certain they lost 5 games that entire stretch. I’m still blown away by this team. Eternal props to them.
5. Rest Easy, Diego – March 18, 2014
An unbelievable tragedy. BU misses Diego dearly. Gone far too soon.
4. My Journey To Boston University – August 5, 2013
This was the first article I wrote where I realized the potential this blog had. I got an incredibly sweet response from my fellow incoming freshmen at BU and was recognized as “that blog guy” more times than I can count thanks in large part to this article. Still makes me smile to this day. I remember this story like it was yesterday.
By far the most important article I’ve ever written. It directly led to my life changing for the better the past seven months. Over that time my bond with these guys has only gotten stronger. This was the first of many times I would show them love for the blessings they gave to my life. I love my family.
2. Stolen Wheelchair – April 22, 2014
This article was shared by hundreds of people, including a bunch of strangers, in an effort to help me out. I have never been as touched in my life than the willingness to help from everyone that April morning so that I could get my chair back safely, which I did hours later. This was insane, but thanks to the happy ending, has become one of my three or four favorite stories of all time. Also, I still get emails to this day about people that think they found the chair despite the fact it was returned about four hours after I published this story. That’s the power of the internet.
I’m hard pressed to think of anything else in my life that reminded me of the beauty of humanity more than this story. To this day I am still proud and elated that the school I love so dearly helped the dream come true for a man I can now comfortably call one of my best friends. I recently got to meet the Hallock twins in person with their mother Joan and I was wonderfully surprised. They are, somehow, even better in the flesh. They already were incredible in my eyes, but this meeting firmed up my pride anew that good things do truly happen to good people – or in this case, amazing to amazing.
Thank you again for making Unbreakable the greatest part of my day for the past year. I hope I can do the same for you.
Connor Lenahan (@ConnorLenahan) is a sophomore at Boston University, majoring in journalism.