Let's go back to February 2016, specifically when the northeastern part of the United States was recovering from a terrible blizzard. At this time in my life, I was writing and publishing numerous articles on my blog. I only had a limited amount of viewers, so it seemed like when I published my posts they were ending up inside this "void"; an area of evident nothingness on the internet. The only ones religiously keeping up with my posts were people like my parents, boyfriend and grandparents — aka the ones who were arguably required to keep up with my daily life.
I wanted to advance my writing and test my creative skills more. I decided to take a leap of faith and attempt an open submission for a media page that I would see pop up numerous times all over social media: Odyssey.
Shortly after my submission, I received an email from a managing editor in New York City who offered me a spot on the Gannon Odyssey community team. Eagerly, I accepted and embraced this opportunity.
The following two months of my life were spent writing and publishing weekly articles. A twenty-year-old getting to have his/her writing published on a national mass media platform was almost unheard of.
Fast forward to the end of April. Finals are starting, students are stressing, my Odyssey adventure is stepping up. There was an opening for editor-in-chief (EIC) on our Gannon team. Feeling a bit courageous, I said "Hey, why not?" and offered to step up and begin leading the Gannon team. Life surprises you like that, sometimes; I never thought of myself being editor-in-chief of anything!
During my few months as EIC, I managed to bring our team closer together. We started talking to each other through GroupMe as well as through Facebook, thus increasing our overall communication as a team. The number of articles published per week from my community was finally surpassing the minimum, which was big! I recruited several new and talented writers, which greatly improved our online stats in regards to our page views.
Finally, the present day. We now have the warm and bright sun shining down creating unbearably high temperatures. I was recently at a graduation party, and I had a few distant relatives complimenting me on my writings I see on Facebook. I was surprised at just how many people had learned of my love for writing just in the past few months.
It was then that I realized: my online views for my writings nearly multiplied, my confidence in my writing capabilities drastically increased, and I have not only close but also distance friends and family regularly complimenting me on my writing.
I was proud at myself for finally embracing something I love, and for actually being pretty good at it!
But, as it often does, my life got busy. I foresee a busy semester ahead of me in regards to academics and, though I wish this wasn't so, I could not seem to give Odyssey my 100 percent effort anymore.
Odyssey has improved my writing, confidence, communication skills and leadership abilities in just a matter of four months. This is not where my writing career ends; I have big hopes and plans when it comes to writing, and Odyssey was a major stepping stone towards getting me on the write track to being the type of writer I want to be.
To any aspiring writers out there: give yourself a push and get your writing out there in the world, maybe even be like me and apply to be a writer for Odyssey.
When you give yourself that extra shove you need, you will surprise yourself at just how rewarding life can become.
