A blank word document. That’s how each of my articles starts every week -- a bit daunting, isn’t it? Soon enough, though, I browse through my Google Doc filled with article inspiration and brainstorm a good 10 more ideas before I land on one that feels comfortable. A Spotify playlist and Panera session later, I've cranked out a piece that is half thought-out, half rambling. At this point, I take twice as long to come up with a catchy title and subheading, usually an awkward balance between what I think is witty versus something that will help readers understand what I'm saying. After taking the effort to search for a cute picture for the header that isn’t just clip art and adding relatable tags and an easily accessible URL, I preview and reread my article one last time before submitting it to be edited, and before you know it, another article has been published.
When I tell people I write for Odyssey, they often ask why I don’t just create and write on a personal blog. With a blog, there are no set deadlines or assignments, and you don’t always have to publish and share your pieces publicly through social media like we do at Odyssey. I’ll admit that for as many times as I scroll through Facebook aimlessly for hours, there are as many times when I wish I could just not look at my piling-up notifications for a whole week. It’s strange to think of this time we live in where our virtual identities can be a source of anxiety.
But these same social identities can also act as a platform for sharing our thoughts and opinions, especially as Millennials. Through Odyssey, my articles now have intention and legitimacy behind them as part of an organization that promotes the voices of young people in all of their diversity. I am able to write about anything I want to, with no topic limits or censorship, giving me the freedom of a blog with the structure of a job and the help and support of a community.
Besides growing so much as a writer by forcing myself to consistently write each week, publicly sharing these Odyssey articles has made me much more confident in owning what I am saying and not being afraid to discuss my experience, why I think the way I do and how that may differ from others. The internet has the benefit of the opportunity to be anonymous, but when you are sharing your work through social media, you learn how to be credible through your writing. You learn not only how to get people to listen to what you have to say, but also how to inspire them to reciprocate by perhaps creating a challenging dialogue, sharing a relatable experience or making someone chuckle. Whether it’s through my relationship with Valentine’s Day or why I stand for feminism, Odyssey gives me the chance to share a part of myself with others as part of a larger movement to utilize social media in a way that reflects real voices instead of the manufactured and institutionalized ideas we are so often fed by the media today.
