I began writing for the Odyssey in September 2015. I was just starting my sophomore year at Ithaca College, and had heard about Odyssey through a coworker. After exchanging emails and interviewing with the editor-in-chief (EIC) of Ithaca College's Odyssey Community, I was offered (and obviously accepted) the position of staff writer.
Initially, I had two main reasons for joining the Odyssey. The first reason was that for a writing major, my resume was severely lacking anything related to writing. I had worked as a maintenance assistant, cashier, and factory worker, but none of these jobs showcased my grammatical skills or prose.
My second reason for joining the Odyssey was probably shared by many of my fellow staff writers (or "content creators" as we are now called). I had a lot of thoughts and opinions that I believed to be worth sharing, and Odyssey provided me with a platform to share them on. Despite my issues with Odyssey, I will always be grateful to it for giving me such a platform.
Since joining Odyssey in September 2015, I've written 109 articles and listicles (I'm pretty sure that number is correct, but math was never my strong suit). My first articles touched on contemporary cultural issues and current events, such as political correctness, ant-immigrant sentiments in the US, Bernie Sanders' candidacy, and North Korea's continued missile tests.
The only problem with writing Odyssey articles about current events was that my articles were released a week after I wrote them. This meant that sometimes, the current events I had written about were no longer current. So I started writing articles about more personal topics, including my struggle with Catholic guilt, my experience as a Type 1 Diabetic, and my issue with participation trophies.
Along with writing articles on more personal topics, I also started writing satirical articles as well as reviews for books, albums, and even cars. Despite having the freedom to write about whatever I wanted, I started becoming disillusioned with Odyssey. I realized that the quantity of our articles (or how often we shared them over social media) was usually considered more important than their quality. I started buying into the idea that Odyssey is a "clickbait generator" and "destroying journalism." I started joking that the only reason I joined Odyssey was so I could find a way to kill it.
But after reflecting on my time as both a "content creator" and contributing editor for Odyssey, I've come to a more positive conclusion. While I still disagree with Odyssey seemingly prioritizing the quantity of articles over their quality, it nevertheless provides thousands of people with a platform to share their thoughts and opinions. And I believe that the benefits of providing such a platform outweigh the detriments of prioritizing quantity over quality. I realize that's a pretty utilitarian way to look at it, but whatever.
As I conclude this article and with it my time at Odyssey, I have a few people to thank. I'd like to thank anyone who took the time to read my articles, even if they simply did so out of boredom. I'd specifically like to thank my close friend Pat Casey, who not only took the time to read my articles, but who also provided constructive criticism that was arguably better written than the articles themselves. I'd also like to thank the EICs I've had over the years: Emma Sheinbaum, Samantha Brodsky, Madison Barlow, Sara Belcher, and Maddie Myers. And special thanks to Sara Belcher, who had to deal with me when I was both a content creator and a contributing editor.
