With all the busy college work and extracurriculars I'm involved with, I came to an important realization that not many writers on here can say. Although I am late by a couple months, I can say it with pride, I have been with Odyssey for the last four years.

Yes, four years in an online media website that mainly has audiences that are females ages 18-34. It is quite an unusual circumstance, a straight male, still writing on a website he has no business writing on, to begin with, and looking back after all these years... I think that's why I haven't been fired yet.

My voice on this website is unique and unusual compared to most. I don't write about most things people write about, I target an audience on this website that is often overlooked, and somehow it is still working to this very day. In my time, I've had four different editors-in-chief, probably three or four different managing editors, and so many people that have changed jobs that I have honestly lost count. If you were to tell Chris Mari in 2015 that you would be one of the most successful writers in Odyssey history, I'd probably say you're lying.

The crazy thing is I am not lying at all.

Somehow, I still generate views in the five to six digits, the monthly paycheck from HQ buys a couple lunches and dinners, and every time I tell myself I am quitting this god-forsaken writing job, I somehow never quite pull the trigger, and I still question myself, why I am still doing this?

It's been a great four years, don't get me wrong. I've generated close to a half million shares and almost a million views on my content, and that's all been great. However, at this point, I am looking back and thinking to myself, do you really want to keep this going? The editors are probably gonna reject this article for some reason or another, and I'll probably ignore it because I just don't care as much anymore (sorry to be honest editors, you guys are still great). I've done so much with Odyssey so far, but is this going to be the best as its gonna get?

I would say this is my retirement article, but somehow it's not. As much as I want to be done with writing, something always brings me back to it.

The paycheck is dismal, the ideas for articles prior to the deadline are almost always nonexistent, but yet I still put myself through this week after week. If you managed to read all of this, I still don't get it either. However, writing all of this took a lot off my chest and now I can go on with my life (thinking about what the hell I am going to write about next week).