As this semester comes to an end and so does my sophomore year of college, I find myself to be growing more and more and moving completely into adulthood. I have written for Odyssey USF for a year now and it has been an amazing experience being able to write freely each week.

Odyssey has given me a safe and open place where I am able to practice my writing abilities and really get my work out there. This whole experience has taught me a lot about myself, where I want to go in writing and how I write.

One important lesson I have learned is deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. In the world of journalism or just writing in general, deadlines are everything. Not only deadlines, but word counts, restrictions and format. There is a lot of behind the scenes work that goes on before mine or any article is published both online and in print. If there is a set word count, do not cross is it, it’s not worth it. This is huge because if you are writing in a magazine or newspaper, you may only have a small square on page space that you are allowed to fill up so going too above or below your word count can mess up the entire project. Deadlines are the same thing.

There is an assembly line of people your article has to go through before it’s published so if you don’t submit on time, you mess up the whole groove of the system.

Another thing I have a learned through my time with Odyssey is how to write creative stories that can appeal to my audience. Although this isn’t a primary news outlet, we are still capable of providing accurate news in a creative way. I have learned a lot about title choosing and what headlines to use in order to make a catchy phrase that may spark somebody’s influence. In writing, word choice means something and makes a difference and that is why editing is also very important.

You want to find the perfect words to say what you are trying to say because typically, someone isn’t going to read your article if you use too big of words or write about things they don’t understand. My end goal is to always find the best and clear way to explain what I am trying to say.

Finally, the biggest lesson I have learned this past year is confidence.

Throughout my time with Odyssey, everyone has been extremely encouraging and continual at supporting the goal of creative freedom and originality. Because of this open mentality and the wonderful feedback, I am able to receive, my writing ability has been able to shape and mold into something better.

At the beginning, I was really nervous about putting my work out there because I thought nobody would care or worse, think it wasn’t good. However, as time went on I was able to put more trust in myself and my writing. I now am able to say that I am proud of each and every article I put out and hope that my readers enjoyed my articles as much as I enjoyed writing them.

This chapter of my life is coming to an end but I will forever be grateful for the outcome of my journey. I am excited to see where my writing takes me and where my next step is. If you have ever read or been involved in any of my articles, thank you.

Please check out the rest of my previous articles if you haven’t already!