Thank You, Odyssey

By the title of this article, you can assume I have decided to leave Odyssey. For the past year and a half, I have been a part of Odyssey, and I have enjoyed it very much.

Even before attending Rider, I had seen people from my town write for Odyssey teams on their college campuses. Being passionate about writing, this made me want to join the Odyssey team for Rider. I reached out to our then Editor In Chief, EIC, answered several questions and the next thing I knew, I was officially a member of our growing Rider team.

From that point on, I put every ounce of thought and creativity into my weekly articles. There were days when I had writer's block, even writing an article entitled, "My Remedies To 'Cure' Writer's Block." There are articles I am extremely proud of, having them make it onto Odyssey's official Facebook page was exciting. There are articles where I poured my heart out, "A Poem In Search Of 'Your Better Half.'" There are articles where I asked my friends on Instagram and Snapchat to give me their input, "The Best Events At Rider University According To Rider Students." Then there are articles where I addressed controversial issues, "A TCNJ Student Is Dead Because Of A Drunk Driver's Stupidity." Odyssey has allowed me to express myself in various ways from my sensitive side, my displeased side, my compassionate side, and everything in between.

Not only did Odyssey give me the ability to voice my opinions, it also gave me leadership opportunities. After being a creator for nine months, I was asked to become our team's, Community Ambassador. In this position, I would maintain a healthy environment for all our creators on our GroupMe. I would not only be the authority of our team, but everyone's friend. After four months of being Community Ambassador, I was then asked to fulfill a new role as Rider's team President. With split roles, our EIC would control editing content while the president would send out reminders of deadlines, outreach to potential creators, onboard the new creators, still maintain the healthy environment, while also keeping up with the community Instagram and community article count. I'll admit, yes it was a lot of work, and there were days when it was a little overwhelming. However, I would never give up, and that speaks volumes. I learned more about recruiting and how to approach a crowd. I learned how to utilize Instagram in ways I never realized. I learned more and more about my creators in that time, developing personal relationships with many of them.

I am thankful for the amazing opportunity Odyssey has provided me. It saddens me to leave such a great organization that allowed me to foster my skills and gave me a platform. With that being said, I am excited to begin a new executive position for the organization, DAARSTOC, where I will serve as the Vice President of Recruitment! I want to thank everyone who I have been fortunate enough to work closely with and get to know through this process. Lastly, I want to thank you, the readers. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy days to read my articles. Not only reading them, but personally responding to me with compliments. Those compliments would really make my day. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the unconditional support.