I was thinking about this e-mail I received from my Managing Editor, saying she wanted to mention the SNHU Odyssey team, because of our dynamic as a community. She said she could tell that we are a family. From my perspective, she couldn’t have been more right. We are all supportive of each other, and some of us have become really close friends with each other. We help build each other up morally, we educate each other, inspire one another, and we help each other become better writers, just by virtue of the topics we choose to write about. That being said, it’s always hard when someone decides to leave. The upside though, is that new people are always joining!

I think part of the reason we all connect so well on a personal level, as well as a professional level, is because most of us joined Odyssey because we want to have a career in writing. There aren’t a ton of schools, currently, that offer a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Writing. Most (although not all) of the people on the Odyssey SNHU team are majoring in either English, or Creative Writing. I think because of that, we all understand how rare it is to find other people who are passionate about writing. We know what it’s like to be that eccentric, creative misfit, and we know how lonely that can be. We always have more to write than what we actually feel comfortable saying out loud. When you’re a writer, relating to others can be a serious challenge, especially when you’re so passionate about what you do. Creative Writing is rarely understood by anyone except other writers. So I think, because of that, we really all have bonded and become a family. We writers have to stick together, otherwise no one else would genuinely understand how our minds work. There is nothing obsolete about writing. There will always be a need for it in some form or another. It’s not just how people get their information, it’s how writers relate to other people. Let’s be real here, writing is a solitary job, and it can be difficult to find the time to conveniently connect with others.

I think, all in all, we have a good comprehension of one another, and what we’re all trying to accomplish with Odyssey. We might not always say much out loud, but give us a pen and paper, or a laptop keyboard for our fingers to fly over, and we will spin tales and truths that we desperately want our readers to comprehend and absorb. We want to be able to bond with others, and share our ideas and opinions with people who will appreciate them. The people who seek out our articles, or who resonate with something we’ve written, those are the people we wrote them for. We’re almost like fortune tellers. We know that someone, somewhere is in need of reading what we’re thinking, so we send it out to those people wherever they may be. We may not know them, we may never meet them, but we understand something about them, and that’s what links us as humans in this digital age. “Welcome to the planet. Welcome to existence” – Switchfoot

I gotta admit, I felt like an alien growing up. I still feel like an alien even as an adult! But with Odyssey, and our team video chats… I’m home. I have a family of wonderful, caring, brilliant, talented, creative writers. These are people who have inspired me, enlightened me, and challenged me to think differently and to feel differently. That’s what living is all about. That’s what growing is all about. Thank you guys, for helping me grow. Love to all of you at Odyssey's SNHU community, both past and present, for you have made my life so much richer!