I've always felt like I could express myself the best through writing. My favorite classes in middle school and high schools were always English. I had a blog in high school that I wrote infrequently.

The last semester of high school was really difficult for me. During this semester, I lost someone that meant a lot to me. I was constantly distracted, stressed about my dual credit classes, while also trying so hard to soak up the last few moments of my senior year. When nothing seemed to help me—I turned to writing. I wrote and wrote until I felt like my brain was free of bad thoughts. Writing during one of the toughest times of my life truly saved me. It changed the way I thought about writing and journalism.

When I tell people that my major is journalism, I often get the why. The generic response is that "I just love writing and I always figured that if I was good at something, I should make a career out of it.... right?"

When my real response should be:

When everything feels wrong—writing feels right.

As a writer, I constantly look for satisfaction with my writing. I need a response as an assurance that my writing is good.

I remember asking my high school English teacher if she thinks that I should pursue journalism, and her immediately saying yes. Even though a part of me always believed that I was good at writing, another part of me needed that extra boost from her. I needed someone to say "I believe in you, and I think you should do this as a career."

Now that I write for my university's newspaper, I often get discouraged when my columns don't go to print. I constantly ask myself "what did I do wrong, am I not a good writer, is my content not good?" Then, my first article went to print. I remember someone that I know telling me how much they loved my column, and that they related to it as they'd gone through the same experiences. I was astonished at the thought of someone reading an opinion column, much less liking it.

At that point in the semester, I was in sort of a slump. I felt uninspired and stuck in my writing and even questioned whether I still wanted Journalism to be my major. After people told me how proud and impressed they were of me to write something so vulnerable—I realized that I was right where I belong.

..."This is our calling, and we do not shirk it..We have espoused unpopular cases, stood up for those too feeble to stand up for themselves, locked horns with the high and might so swollen with power that they have forgotten their roots, exposed corruption and the waste of your hard-earned tax rupees, and made sure that whatever the propaganda of the day, you were allowed to hear a contrary view."

This quote describes not only what I think my job as a journalist is, but also why I write in the first place. As a journalist, a large part of my job is to help the helpless. I write to let people know that they are not alone.

Whether I am writing a column or a piece for Odyssey, my goal is to have someone read it and relate to it. It might be that I write something that they sympathize with, or something that they've thought about but have never been able to put it into words.

Just as I have written to give my thoughts a voice, I write to give a voice to those who can't speak for themselves.