I started my Odyssey journey only a few months ago. Back in November of last year, I discovered that a few of my sorority sisters had been writing for something called Odyssey and were getting their thoughts, stories, opinions, and whatever else they decided to write about published and people all across our small campus were recognizing their articles and even writing their own. I remember thinking, "Holy sh*t, that's kind of really cool."

I wasn't too sure if it was something I actually wanted to do or not, but I thought to myself that I have some things I'd like to share and my AP English teacher from high school always complimented my writing and hinted at the fact that if I would just slow down and really think before I started writing, I'd be an even better writer.

At the time, I was still looking for more things to get involved in. So I didn't tell anyone about it except for my mom. I sent in an application and decided that if it didn't work out then I wouldn't be too salty about it.

But I heard back within a couple of days, sent along my writing samples, and suddenly I was being introduced to the Adrian College Odyssey team as the newest addition. With everything else I had going on in the past years, I forgot how much I really enjoyed writing and everything that comes with it, so it was nice to get back into it. It helped relieve tons of stress by being able to get things off my chest and out of my head.

Things were quite different even just that short time ago, and I sort of came in at an awkward time for our group without getting much guidance or explanation for different things, so I basically just wrote my articles and carried on. Our Editor in Chief at the time was planning on handing over his responsibilities since he was going to be starting his last semester of his senior year, and he ended up thinking I would be a good candidate for taking over our team.

I still didn't really know much of what anything was or how it worked, but out of nowhere, I found myself in a phone interview with our Managing Editor, Alex. After a nice chat and exchanging goals and ideas for our team, she told me she thought I'd be great for the position.

So I went from not knowing much about anything to being the Editor in Chief in only two months. Which is crazy and maybe not so fair to the other members of our team at the time, and I definitely recognize that. But I got a little bit of training, figured out a hell of a lot on my own, went through quite a few rounds of trial and error to see what works best for our group of individuals, asked Alex hundreds of questions, and have put more time and effort into this than I have for things that you would think would be more important to me than some writing platform.

But I love what I do with Odyssey and with my team. I love figuring out which kinds of articles or topics attract which kinds of people, and which articles are better received than others. I honestly find it interesting to see what types of content attract people from smaller schools or bigger schools, or people not in school at all. I love being able to write about whatever I want and seeing that at least one person has similar feelings or thoughts. I love managing a group of people and helping them in whatever ways I can.

Applying for a small position with Odyssey has brought me so much more than I ever thought it could. I get to express myself in ways not everyone gets the chance to do. I get to have my writing published nationally for free. I have multiple opportunities to get paid each month if I meet certain goals. I'm able to shed light on topics other people overlook or don't care about that I think deserve to be talked about. And most importantly to me, I'm relieving stress, building my résumé, and gaining real-world experience.

And with how rapidly Odyssey is growing and improving, I think it would be a huge mistake for anyone to give up an opportunity like this. Especially since it was recently announced that Odyssey has raised $25 million dollars from institutional investors and outlets like Yahoo! Finance are saying things like this:

"Odyssey is one of the fastest growing online and mobile platforms of its size for millennials, surpassing more than 30 million monthly unique visitors. The company has already expanded its audience by more than 10 million new users in 2016."

That's a lot of people looking at the things average people like me are saying and thinking.

So if you're finding yourself thinking you'd like to learn more, you can go to http://about.theodysseyonline.com/ and see what it's all about, or you can apply for a local or national position here. And I strongly encourage you to.