Ever since my senior year in high school, I would read Odyssey articles on my free time. I was so attracted to all of the relatable listicles and even laughed at the GIFs used to describe one of the points made for the post. Even though I was an undecided major at the time, writing for the Odyssey was something that I always wanted to do. I used to have a YouTube channel and I loved expressing my opinion on certain topics. In real life, I'm not outgoing, but I'm definitely not shy. Using a social media platform allowed me to use my voice.

Even at work, I would read articles in my free time. I finally decided to apply to write for the Odyssey at Towson University, my school. I applied in maybe August 2017 and I didn't hear back until the end of October. During that wait, I honestly thought I was forgotten about, but I still had hope.

When the EIC called me back at the end of October, I was absolutely shook and of course, I took the offer. I was so excited to get my login and see what the formatting was like. I didn't start writing until I sent out my first article on November 7, 2017, titled 10 Towson Student Struggles. I wanted to stick to writing about college life and the struggles that Towson students can relate to. I then branched out and started writing about my home state, dating, relationship advice, awkward relatable struggles, body issues, my work life, and open letters to important people in my life. As I started branching out and opening up more, my articles became more in-depth and meaningful.

Over the course of the year, I did have some struggles and I did have to learn how to navigate my way through editing and sending articles. I didn't know exactly what I was getting into, and the process of writing an article is tough. We have to write an article at least once a week (and if you are a busy person, it's pretty rough). We also had to deal with the old Muse platform deleting all of our hard work because of random glitches. Sometimes, we pick cover photos and write titles that we like and our EIC's will ask us to change them, so we have to scramble and find something else without plagiarizing.

Also, out of all of the struggles that I mentioned, having writer's block was something SERIOUS. For instance, there would be times that I would blank and not know what to write and the deadline was approaching. There were times where I was writing multiple articles a week, and then for the future weeks, I wouldn't know what to do. Despite all of the challenges I faced, I had to learn how to make the best of it and practice new methods that worked for me. Here are some things that I learned over the year:

With these methods, my articles kept getting stronger and stronger. Writing them became easier for me and it was more enjoyable to share my work with friends and followers. Overall, I am glad that I started writing for the Odyssey because it allowed me to express my opinions on certain issues and topics and make people laugh. It also feels good to relate to other people and have a sort of "blog." This hobby has turned into a regular passion of mine. Even though I am not studying journalism in college, it is a way to release stress and feel happy.