When I first started to write for the Odyssey, I was hesitant and unsure of what I just signed myself up for. Now granted my passion is telling stories, but theoretically speaking it sounded a lot less intimidating than actually doing so.
Now I had to actually take a stance and voice my opinion: something I was only comfortably doing around close friends and family. I thought a lot about how others would react. I debated what to share and what not to share. In short, I was a bit of a mess the first couple of weeks after I started writing for the Odyssey.
Eventually I got beyond that awkward stage of being afraid to share my opinion and I started becoming more confident in what I stood for. I was soon able to confidently share opinions and stories I previously only shared with trusted friends.
Not only did I have the opportunity to share my thoughts about the world, but I was also able to impact others’ lives as well. I suddenly had this opportunity to affect change. I was no longer just some over-opinionated college student that thought this world needed some work. I was a writer. I was an activist. I was an advocate.
In writing for Odyssey, you are assigned to write at least one article a week on a topic of your choosing. You could write about something trendy and new such as OPOW: Odyssey at SOU Playlist Of the Week 6, something interesting and fun such as How To Look Like An Oregonian, or something a little more serious and everything in between. Once your article is published, you have the opportunity to share that article on all your social media platforms.
Through Odyssey I’ve found my voice in my writing. As a result of being given the opportunity to write about anything I find interesting, I found the passion and concern in my voice that I had yet to find in my journalistic writing.
Not only did I get the chance to further develop my writing ability, I’m also now a published writer at the age of eighteen, which really makes my resume pop. It doesn't matter if you want to be a journalist or a chemical engineer - having the chance to say that you wrote for an online publication will help you with further employment.
The Odyssey allows you to write about current national issues, but you also have the option to write about concerns you have within your own community. In July of 2015 the site had a total of 1,600 writers over 180 different campuses, according to Digiday. Odyssey is a site that prompts young adults to speak up for what they believe in and share their points of view.
In a world where many of the older generations believe that millennials have no opinions and nothing to say about the world, Odyssey gives us that medium to strongly disagree. Just because we are young and have much to learn does not mean that we are useless and can’t promote change.
This publication gives us the chance to say what we’ve been holding on to for all these years - all the ideas we were told we didn't know enough about. All the emotional reactions to events we never discussed with anyone. Now is the time to share these stories. What I enjoy the most about Odyssey is that it doesn't matter who you are or what you look like. At the end of the day, the content you share speaks for itself.
So if you are at all interested in becoming a part of Odyssey, please fill out an application or if you wish to know more information about this publication, click here.
