Why I left Odyssey

After a five or so month hiatus, here I am! I'm so excited to be back and happy to get into the swing of writing for Odyssey again. Out of familial obligations or being my long lost ex-boyfriends or the parents of middle school friends, I know that there is a small group of people that read my articles every single week, so this one is for them. A thank you for the support when I was active with this organization and an explanation for where I have been since my last post.

Simply put, I'm busy. Since my last article, I attended three themed gatherings, a date party, a formal and said goodbye to some of the graduating members of my sorority. I have volunteered almost two hundred hours both with an on-campus museum of archeology and with a youth leadership seminar where I served as the Assistant Director of Programming. I ended my sophomore year of college nearly one whole point above the last semester's GPA. I have spent this summer serving ice cream to moody teenagers and aggressive housewives at my hometown's Dairy Queen and attended two international youth leadership and empowerment summits to work as the Program Assistant. Ya girl has some things going on.

In between all of those activities, there are cracks through which the quality of my writing began to fall. I was submitting articles within minutes of their deadline without the effort that my work deserves. I love writing but I was no longer proud of the work I was producing. I was throwing together pieces to meet their dates and not to meet the I have for my writing. I write to fulfill myself. The validation of my words and opinions in print and serving as a resource or opinion or leisure reading after bedtime for readers is so important to me. Moreover, there is comfort in the click of my laptop keys and satisfaction in putting the mess in my head into organized paragraphs.

So what changed and why am I able to commit myself fully now? Good question and if I figure it out, I'll let you know. I do know that in the past few months I have caught myself missing Odyssey. I will be walking through a grocery store or sitting with my dog or making balloon animals and get hit with a great title for an article. I want to be writing again, and I love the forum provided for me through Odyssey. I also missed the people. Odyssey at Ohio State is a close-knit group of truly incredible creators, and I am so excited to be back working alongside them. I have a working list of articles that I would like to do, which should help keep me on track rather than scrambling to find a topic a few hours before I submit. Plus, with my higher GPA and the ease I have found in studying since I joined two major that I love so much, I feel like I have the time to carve out and really dedicate to producing work that I am proud to put out there. So let's try this again!