After spending most of his adolescence moving from different towns, cities and countries, junior Diego Droguett made a name and home for himself in Geneseo as the mysterious creator of “Geneseo Confessions.” It was during last spring when Droguett took a semester off for personal reasons and created the Facebook page after fearing that he would lose his connection to Geneseo.
“I was missing Geneseo and I was going through personal issues, so I felt that I could really benefit from a page like that, and I thought others might too,” Droguett said.
According to Droguett, the page slowly grew a fan base. At its peak, the group had acquired over 1,500 fans and Droguett had received around the same number of confessions.
“It's really cool, I think, to see people coming out and people opening up to this anonymous page and then having the Geneseo community comment,” he said.
While Droguett said he appreciated the encouragement from the student body, maintaining the page involved time-consuming work. He had to create a schedule to help make the page run smoothly.
“I would check it multiple times a day, and when I felt comfortable that there were enough confessions, I would post them in bulk. So I would post four or five, sometimes up to 10 confessions,” he said. “I would do that once a day.”
On Sept. 17, Droguett logged on to Facebook to find that “Geneseo Confessions” had been deleted, and his personal account had been banned for 12 hours. Droguett said this was due to one of the posts on the page violating the terms of service. After the 12-hour ban, Droguett made a conscious decision not to make another page.
“It was a lot of work, and I didn't want to set up another page. It took a while to get the large following it did,” Droguett said. “I've noticed the Geneseo Facebook groups have been dying down lately, so I decided to just kind of leave it in my memories.”
Another “Geneseo Confessions” page has since been created, though Droguett claims no involvement.
Without “Confessions,” Droguett said he is now more focused on completing his degree in biology. He hopes to follow in his parents' footsteps - both are heavily involved in the sciences - and do pharmaceutical research.
Droguett was born in the Bronx, N.Y. After his father received a job offer, Droguett and his parents relocated to Concepción, Chile for four years. According to Droguett, the move wasn't too difficult.
“I was raised with the same customs as they were, so I adapted really well there,” he said.
While constant movement helped define his adolescence, Droguett said this helped him make the most of college when he eventually started his studies at Geneseo.
“I've never really started off with a fresh, clean slate like everyone else,” Droguett said. “So I definitely took opportunity of that and just met a whole bunch of new people because we were all in the same situation.”
Ultimately, Droguett said that all of his travels and experiences - from the Bronx to Chile to Geneseo - have taught him invaluable lessons.
“Being in the Bronx, I grew up and I learned to just fend for myself,” Droguett said. “In Chile there were huge family connections I made that I still keep today. Everywhere I go, I just take something in and keep it.”