When I was in high school, there was a point where my dad expressed interest for me to become a journalist when I entered college. It wasn't out of his interest, but mine. He was trying to be supportive because he knew I loved to write, and I think it often astounded him when he would read the pieces I produced on my high school’s publications staff.

I contemplated it for a while, but deep down I knew I wasn’t ever going to major in journalism. I had other dreams, and I knew writing would always be a hobby and probably nothing more. So when college came around, writing took the back-burner. I didn’t think about it much, because I was so consumed in projects and essays that I thought might’ve filled the void of not writing (hint: I was wrong.) But a few months ago, I joined the staff for Odyssey, and I’ve come to realize that this is the best outlet for me. Odyssey provides a lot for writers like myself that I didn’t think much about before, and as I find myself reflecting, I have more and more reasons to vouch for why Odyssey is the perfect fit for me.

1. I’m not limited to set topics

In the world of journalism, one is always asked to report news, write about a cool place downtown, or a do a life-changing story about a local hero overcoming a huge obstacle. Everyone who writes has their niche. Mine was always the soft stuff. I kept as far away as I could with sports, and news just never spoke to me.

With Odyssey, the topic is all in my control. If there’s a message I really want to get out one week, I have that option. If I want to write an argument about why peanut butter and jelly is and always will be the best sandwich hands down, nobody is going to stop me. I can write about boasting about my sorority in one article, and then putting presidential candidates to shame in the very next. I can flop from editorial-style articles to covering a sports game (that won’t happen) to giving the hard facts about the local bar that mysteriously caught fire down the street. My possibilities are endless, allowing me to experiment as a writer and find what I’m really capable of.

2. I get to create my own style

With Odyssey, I’m not forced to follow a strict journalism format. Of course, I have that option, and sometimes I will. However, I can integrate my voice when I feel like it works, I can use as many headers as I want, and I can organize the piece in the way that’s easiest for me.

3. Word count is not a daunting problem

My issue as a writer was never trying to reach a word count, but to keep my words within the allowed format. I was constantly trying to find single words or sentences to cut to desperately make things fit without losing any of the content. I was, and probably never will be, someone who can write something and just flat out go, “Here it is. These are the facts. The end.”

I need to have a conversation with an audience. Or hey, maybe I’m really having a conversation with myself. But regardless, I can achieve that with the freedom that I have.

4. I get to ensure the well-being of the people that I interview

As a journalist, one has to remain completely unbiased to the topic at hand and distant when interviewing people. You go in for one purpose: to get the information to write a good piece. I have found in several situations when I wrote about touchy subjects, that I had to keep my emotions and feelings at bay. I had to be neutral when asking my questions, never being sure if something I asked crossed a line or made someone hurt or uncomfortable.

But now, I can go about those things how I want. I can have a conversation with someone and ask, “Is that OK? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” I can ask things purely for benefiting my knowledge on a topic before writing about something or someone with the utmost care and respect. I feel I can connect better with the people I speak to because I don’t have the weight of all these rules pressing on my chest. I get to do these things as my own pace.

5. I’m writing for an outlet that extends

Odyssey has grown in tremendous proportions since the site’s launch in 2014. There are billions of people that have read and shared these articles across Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, and even Tumblr. Not everyone gets the opportunity to write for an outlet that gives every single writer the potential for their articles to go viral and spread across the country, if not the world. If I have something that I feel is very important to write, there’s a great potential my words may spread.

In one of my most recent articles that I wrote, someone linked it to Twitter and said article spread to doctors and therapists, who in turn tweeted me and gave me positive feedback on my words. I have the potential to make a difference and help make some issues heard, and it’s a lot easier to do that now than when I was writing for other groups or organizations.

6. Putting my thoughts into words makes sense

We all have those times where we have so many thoughts going through our heads, we don’t even know if what we’re thinking is actually something comprehensible to another person. And some of us have thoughts like that more than others.

I am one of those people.

But I can write about something, put my thoughts into words on paper, and reading back on it helps me to understand how I got to a certain place. It helps me figure out why I’m feeling that way.

One of my first pieces was about an experience I had with sexual assault. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out why I held onto some of those feelings for so long and why other people were judging me for obsessing over it. Honestly, I didn't know exactly what was going through my head. But I put my feelings down, just hoping that they would make sense when I read back over them. And when I did, I found myself coming to peace with the events that unraveled over those months. I realized my feelings were valid, I was not wrong to feel the way I did, and I wasn’t crazy even though I often felt that way.

Several of these points can be arguable by any person who finds writing as a passion of his or hers. But I think that’s part of what I’m getting at. Odyssey has helped me to remember the passion I had for writing that I had forgotten about a long time ago. It’s become a template for me to tiptoe back into something that I loved.

And I can’t thank this site enough for that.