When people find out that I write for Odyssey, they first ask, "What is Odyssey?" which is then followed with, "Why do you write for it?"

Being a Journalism major, I guess I already do my fair share of writing, but I truly enjoy writing for Odyssey.

Writing an article for Odyssey is vastly different from the writing I have to do for my classes.

To be frank, I actually do not hate writing papers so I'm grateful that most of my classes require to write papers or stories. I know, weird, but I'd rather write a paper than take a test any day.

Thankfully, writing comes fairly easily to me, otherwise, I would be pursuing the wrong major and I never really struggle to organize my thoughts and get them down on paper.

It's almost therapeutic, yet stressful at the same time, so I guess, in a way, they cancel out.

The majority of my papers tend to be for my political science classes which give me the freedom to interject my own thoughts in regards to the topic at hand since I usually have to analyze or comment on the current state of politics, a reading, or a theory.

On the other hand, I also write stories and by that, I mean articles that recount actual things happening in the world.

There isn't that much creative freedom in this type of writing, which can be frustrating at times, but as a journalist, it is my responsibility to keeping my stories impartial, making sure to only recount the facts.

To others, writing may just be that, writing.

But to me, there are different forms of writing, and I like to engage in a variety of writing styles because they all are beneficial to me in one way or another and that is why I write for Odyssey.

Odyssey gives me the opportunity to spit out what is on my mind and not have to worry about using appropriate jargon or staying completely neutral on an issue.

I have full creative freedom, being able to choose my own article topics and am included throughout the entire process of getting my article perfect for publication.

I never knew I would need an outlet like Odyssey to just let loose and have fun with writing.

I was never that into writing in a diary or journaling, but I guess writing for Odyssey is kind of like that except for the small fact that everyone in the world can now access my internal thoughts.