Thanks for visiting www.WilliamKelly.fun.

I built this website to introduce myself and to create a database of personal contacts. Halfway through its construction though, I began to wonder who, other than my mom, would be interested in William-talking-about-William. Even worse, it dawned on me that a boring website would not be great advertising for an aspiring communicator. In truth, I simply have not done enough yet to be tooting my horn. Sure, I have potential, but dedicating an entire site to my potential is, well, you get the idea.

What I needed was a hook, something that would engage a visitor while they learned more about me. Towards this end, let me introduce ... Manhattanhenge.

(Pictures and quotes are taken from the American Museum of Natural History Museum and Neil Degrsse Tyson presentation of Manhattanhenge ... https://www.amnh.org/research/hayden-planetarium/manhattanhenge.)

Imagine it's May 5th (any May 5th) around 5:55 p.m. and you're in Manhattan walking north on 5th Avenue. When you reach 55th Street, you look west towards New Jersey, and you're shocked to see the sun setting precisely in the middle of the street's canyon of skyscrappers. This awesome solar event is Manhattan's very own Stonehenge or "Manhattanhenge," a phenomenon that Jackie Faherty, an astrologist and Manhattanhenge mapper, calls, "Astrology in your face!"

We'll get back to Manhattanhenge in a minute, but first let me tell you a little about me. I'm a senior at Boston College studying communication; that is, the relaying of information in a clear and often persuasive manner. Nowadays, this means becoming a virtuoso in using language, social media, email, video, imagery, statistics, AI, advertising, sales, and much more. It also means having and honing the personal skills needed to be clear and persuasive like writing, elocution, poise, awareness, perception, doggedness, thick-skinnedness, extroversion, etc.

Sure, I'm biased, but I believe I have what it takes to be good at it, and I have had some job success to back this up -- tour guide for BC High School, pizza deliveryman (don't laugh, it was a real in-your-face education in what drives people), social-media creator for the BC Bookstore, shoe salesman for Allbirds, display designer for Vuori, and intern on a client-facing communications team for Havas. No, this is not Don Drapper / Madmen-level experience, but it's enough to indicate that I'm headed in the right direction. (Don is not a role model, just a fun example.)

Okay, so I did manage to slip in some horn tooting after all, but I've layered most of the stuff about me in pages linked to the following icons. Click on them if you're interested.

Back to Manhattanhenge...

So anyway, how did they get 55th Street to line up so precisely with the setting sun every year on May 5th at 5:55?

They didn't, of course. As Neil DeGrasse Tyson, a world reknown 'splainer of astophysics tells it, the sun's asimuth (its horizontal direction) and its elevation are aligned with the street's vector just as the sun reaches its perigee at precisely...

Or alternatively, Manhattan's streets just happen to line up with the setting sun on certain dates and times (sorry, Dr. Tyson).

What's more interesting than Dr. Tyson debunking this faux-mystery is his speculation that some future archeologist is going to discover the alignment and posit that the date had some deep significance for us. After all, this archeologist will argue, what's the liklihood that 55th Street just happens to line up so precisely with the setting sun every year on May 5th at 5:55? Not very high, people will say, right?

Then with a twinkle in his eyes, Dr. Tyson innocently asks if we are perhaps jumping to the same erroneous conclusion with Stonehenge. Which begs an even more interesting question -- how much of what we believe is the unassailable truth about our history is based on an expert's theory supported by coincidental facts?

Just askin'. But let's get back to me, or rather back to you.

If I've learned anything so far about the real world it's that personal contacts, even casual ones, are valuable, which prompts me to ask you to leave me something in the form below -- advice, a comment, a criticism, a suggestion, anything. If you do, please know that I won't try to sell you anything, ask you for a job, give your contact information to anyone, be careless with your data, or stalk you. I may ask you a question one day, but my primary purpose right now is just to start building a network.

Certainly in this day of information abuse I will understand if you prefer not to leave anything. However, even if it's just your handle and a comment, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks, William