When I was first messaged about joining The Odyssey by my school's president, Emily, I was both extremely flattered and a little nervous.

She decided to recruit me due to my Twitter presence (never shutting the fuck up, basically) and the way I seemed passionate about things online and encouraged me to just go ahead and make the dedication, talking me through the process.

Shortly after, I was launched into the full force of things, with a deadline, an article idea, and a then-overwhelming group chat of about 12 creators.

After some technical snafus, I was finally able to post my first article about a week into my Odyssey career, and when it went live shortly thereafter and I heard my friends', family's, and fellow creators' feedback about it, I was inspired and felt more on top of the world than I ever had before. So I decided to keep at it from that point, and at the time of writing I am on my 8th month of writing as part of this team, Odyssey and I almost have a baby together.

Not every week has been easy, sometimes I am completely burnt out and at a loss for ideas and staying up late to finish before the deadline and stressed with school on top of all of that, but my fellow Creators are always there to help build each other up and to provide some free headlines or cool topics to have me write about when I'm stuck, and vice versa.

Since joining, I have published about 30 articles, stemming from political topics I am passionate about to personal poetic musings to fluff articles about relatable topics to messages to my friends and fellow creators, and I have so many more fields I want to branch into in the future.

And being part of The Odyssey means I can do that, one of my favorite parts of writing for this team is that there is no limit to what I can write, and I don't have to be put in any sort of category or niche when it comes to topics, unless I myself willingly enter them.

So I will continue to write about any and everything I feel is worth my time, week after week, because it's such a rewarding experience to see something you spent a week working on start being read and shared by your friends.

Beyond the actual content, I love writing for The Odyssey here at Missouri State University because our team feels like a family. Remember when I mentioned the "overwhelming" 12 member GroupMe earlier? As of right now, our team has exploded into a 45 member team, churning out loads of new content of all sorts every single week. And even better than that? We are constantly onboarding more and more people if you follow our Instagram you can see new creators being added every few days!

We are a constantly growing family and we are also constantly chattering away in the GroupMe about our lives, getting to know each other, joking around with each other, making plans for creator hangouts, talking about loves and losses and achievements and goals and any and everything, becoming closer friends by the day as we continue to be part of this great team together. I wouldn't trade my fellow creators for the world.

Our Editor In Chief, Allison, works her butt off more and more each week as we continue to expand, reading and editing dozens of articles and making sure we haven't absolutely messed everything up.

And of course I have to give a shoutout to our queen, our Head Bitch In Charge, Emily, for bringing us all together, whether by just being there to handle debriefing new creators or to hound people to join our team (or tell us to do that for her) or to be a confident and a hugely loving supporter of us as both creators and people or to just remind us of our deadlines, Emily is the glue that holds our Odyssey team together!

I adore writing for The Odyssey for so many reasons, and every one of these will be felt by you, too, so if you are at all inclined to write, even just for fun, you should contact your school's team and try to join (but more importantly, if you're a Missouri State student, contact our team to join!) and you just might find a hobby you love, viral fame, a way to keep busy, and a new group of friends beyond your wildest dreams.

Apply to join The Odyssey today!