My birthday is coming up this week and I've taken some time to reflect on my time here at The Odyssey. We've had highs and lows here, but I continue to keep my chin up and persevere through all of it. This past year has not been easy for everyone, but we still had to stick it out and now we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This made me look back on my time here and see what I accomplished.

I started writing for The Odyssey back in 2016 and, as of this article, I have written 200 articles for the site. I focus my efforts on topic surrounding various forms of art. I discussed things such as film editing, auteur theory, film music, themes within film, video game character design, visual effects, and animation. When I started I just wanted to talk about fun aspects of film and media, but news would often force me to talk about more serious issues within the industry.

I found myself discussing things such as the waning popularity of movie theaters, the lack of respect given to digital effects engineers, the need for an official means of preservation for video games, the call for better forms of preservation for film, the effects of digital streaming on the industry as a whole, and the effects the pandemic has had on the industry. I ended up discussing a lot of weighty subjects and between all of those topics I just needed to take small breaks and discuss lighter subjects like cartoons and video games.

One of the biggest struggles I had during my time here was last year. Like everyone else, the pandemic took its toll, both physically and mentally. I had to take off work for about five months, so you would think I'd have plenty of time to write. However, I was left with very little to write about while the world slowed down. I was also struggling to find any motivation to write while I was at home dealing with an extra helping of depression.

Luckily, I made it through it. I worked hard and made it through all of these trials to see the light at the end of the very dark tunnel. I hope the world starts to, more or less, go back to normal so I can start writing about new films, comics, and video games. However, this article isn't about me, it's about all of the people who stuck by me and enjoyed my content during the good times and the bad. It's about all of the people who stopped and read one of my articles over the past four and a half years. It's about the friends who were there for article number 1 and are still here for number 200. These are the people who got me where I am today and got me through some of the toughest moments of my life. I would just like to say thank you, and I hope you stick around for the future.