As a freshman in college many people are drowning in homework. They are scared of failing and soon the stress of midterms will creep upon them. Anxiety begins to eat at you and suddenly you have no outlet. What do you do? I know when I hit this point I truly had no idea what I was going to do. Then, I discovered The Odyssey and since then my life has never been the same.

Most people use a sport or art as their “outlet” or center for stress relief when they are in high school. But when you hit college there really are no sports opportunities unless you are amazing and even artistic and other creative opportunities are pretty much nonexistent. A lot of college students really struggle with how to express themselves. We stress ourselves out to the point of no return and we drown in massive piles of homework that we do not know how to handle.

Adding another assignment to that already long list of tasks may sound like something that makes you want to rip your hair out. But what if the assignment you add was like your security blanket? What if your laptop became the home for all your stories and a window into the secrets you have kept under lock and key for so long? What if you finally found the outlet you have been craving?

After a very long 2016 filled with several tragedies and a life surrounded by horrific experiences and negative thoughts, I stumbled upon The Odyssey. And to this day it has been one of the most life altering experiences for me and I would not trade it for the world! I owe my joining of The Odyssey to one of my very good friends. She was the one that inspired me to start writing for The Odyssey. On the verge of a mental break down one night I texted her and asked if I could apply to be a writer for The Odyssey and a few days later I was accepted!

Today I have written several articles that tell the many different stories that create the story of my life. Some of them have told secrets I have hidden and some have let my personality shine through. But each and every article has given me the wonderful and open space that I need to release the stories from my mind. I found my “outlet” for stress relief in a website meant for everyone. A compilation of stories that continues to grow each and every day.

I have now moved up to the slot of contributing editor! Working alongside one of my closest friends, the one that helped me start all of this in the first place. The entire community of writers is made up of incredible people with even more incredible stories and I look forward to continuing to write with them! We are one big giant family here at The Odyssey and I hope that one day our team will continue to grow so that everyone can experience the joy of writing just as I have!