Let us rewind. Back about four years, a young man just began attending the University at Albany and was about to start his second semester of pursuing the glorious accounting major and try to be accepted to the business school. This lasted about another year until I realized it was not meant to be. I started out in accounting but I soon realized that it was more than just plugging in numbers: it was learning the laws, rules, and anything else I did not learn in my high school accounting class. To me, this was a form of hell I needed to escape.

Now we are in junior year. I dropped my accounting dream (or nightmare) and started to go after a communications degree with a minor in business. I had no idea what I was going to do. I started looking at internships for advertising, marketing, and public relations but did not get a single reply back. Then in between junior and senior year I found something I wanted to try. Writing for Odyssey. I sent in an application and within a few short days of hoping I would be accepted, I was.

Present day, I am now 27 various forms of articles, one video, hundreds of scrapped ideas and hundreds of new ideas that pop in my head, as well as many writer’s blocks in and I have found something I am passionate about. Expressing my own opinion and finally sharing it with the world. This experience is something I would not give up nor allowed to be taken from me.

At first I tried to write on Buzzfeed’s community page and miserably failed as it went up in flames moments after I created the account. That website was one where anyone can join and write whenever but because of the fact I had no deadlines, ideas were not coming to me, and I just didn’t have the focus or the desire because I did not think it was something fit for me. It, quite literally, went up in flames in front of me. Now, I have deadlines to meet, an amazing group of people who are working along side me that I can go to with ideas to bounce back and forth or questions for which I need answers; I have the want and drive to actually write and the confidence that comes from writing these articles because, let’s all be real for a second, when you try to write for something like this for the first time, you are nervous about what people will say. Now after being so far into my time as a creator, I have had both positive as well as negative feedback on some articles. The creator of a musical group I listen to shared an article; my own school shared one, too, and I have been able to write about things or people I never thought I would have ever wrote about. But most importantly, I have learned to build and maintain my confidence and to have faith in myself as a writer as well as a person.

One of my favorite things that has come from being a creator for Odyssey besides being able to express and share my opinions, stories, and ideas is that when people ask me what I do besides school, I simply reply “I row and I am a creator for Odyssey.” This starts a dialogue where I mention rowing and what that consists of but then, I can explain that I write, give examples of my work or even show it to people! I have had people who asked for the link to my page and have then messaged me saying how well I write and that my articles were entertaining, insightful, or just great in general along with the few people who tell me they disagree with something I wrote about. But to me, any feedback is good feedback.

So if you are reading this, feel like you want to write, perhaps have things you want to share, opinions to express, or want to have a voice that can and will be heard, I strongly recommend you try and create with Odyssey. No matter if your major is journalism, communications, accounting or maybe even nanoscience, anyone can become a creator when the pen (or keyboard) is in their hand.