In my Odyssey GroupMe, one of my student editors asked the question “Why don’t college males write for the Odyssey?” I have been pondering this idea since I joined in summer of 2016 and I still don’t have an answer.

It's always common to see girls share articles on their best friend’s timeline about how they are like Monica from friends or they found an article they love and knew their friend would too. While Odyssey is still just as popular as — if not even more — when I started writing something I have noted is the lack of male writers and with that, I bring the question why is it so difficult for the Odyssey to have guy writers?

Since my freshman year I know it has been common to see specific articles and I know the Odyssey is for everyone who wants to write and have fun but all the articles I read there were ones that I couldn’t relate to. While I do enjoy seeing someone describe a week of college with Office GIFs there are other articles, I wish I could relate to like the ones I go through every day. It’s a huge deal to write about and post it online and to everyone who does that whether it's for the Odyssey or any online platform should be applauded because it isn’t easy to open up. I saw more articles over time and they could focus on different subjects that we aren’t even comfortable telling our close friends.

While I saw more and more I kept wondering about guys and why they didn’t want to write.

One thing I know is that in college you’re going to be busy. There will be days where you want to be with friends and just can’t because of a test. Getting involved in extracurricular activities is very similar in regards because we don’t know what will be ahead of us. Being a part of the Odyssey can be a little stressful but it is a way to get some good writing experience. Think about your dream job, before you can get hired for it you either go through an internship or you join clubs that are relative to your career path. For example, I want to work in sports media so it wouldn’t surprise many people when I tell them that I immerse myself in different parts of media and getting involved in different sports departments.

I had my ideas that Odyssey was only meant for certain people and I wasn’t one of them. But after being able to write for them and turn my ideas into words and publications, my thinking is much different. I don’t know if more guys will start writing but I strongly urge them to. In fact I hope many people can look at writing as a creative outlook rather than just a way for you to do assignments in college.

There’s nothing wrong with writing and everyone has a story to tell. There are times where I don’t think anyone will read my article and someone will text me and say your article touched me and made me tear up a little. That’s what makes me continue my writing and giving me the idea that even though my writings aren’t the most viewed or most popular, I write for everyone and there is someone out there reading my articles. Maybe that’s what might be so hard not knowing how to open up and put your writing into words.

We should look at other ways to be creative and one of these is by writing. Who knows? Maybe we can get something out of writing. You never know what you may end up liking.