If you're reading this, you probably write for Odyssey, or, you're interested as to why I write for Odyssey. Maybe you accidentally clicked on the link, I don't know. Either way, I (believe it or not) write for Odyssey, and here's why. It's not some grand reason; I don't think I'm going to change the entire world by writing Odyssey articles. I write Odyssey articles to help myself and to help others as well. Here's why I write for Odyssey.

First, I should probably tell you how I came upon Odyssey. I saw an advertisement, if you will, to write for Odyssey through my college, Ohio University, in August 2018.

"Just wanted to reach out one more time before the semester starts and say that Odyssey at Ohio is still looking for more Content Creators! Odyssey is essentially an online forum mostly run by college students who write about literally anything they want. You can think of it as a Buzzfeed or a blog for young people in school!"

I was a freshman going into her first year of college, I wanted something to belong to. I knew sororities were out of the question, yet wanted something I would apart of from day one. Writing about anything they want. That sentence resonated with me. All my life, teachers had told me what to write about, now I had a chance to write entirely about what I wanted to write about. Did I like writing? Well, I liked being heard, I wanted to be heard. Did I like Buzzfeed? Not entirely. When I thought of Buzzfeed, I'd think of "What type of bread are you? Take this quiz!" I didn't want to write like that, again, I wanted to help myself and others. Not tell them they fit the rye bread vibe check. Nonetheless, I contacted the person who posted this memo.

It took me a while to officially become apart of the org (communication issues, which were not my fault). Finally, a few weeks into my first semester of college, I wrote my first Odyssey article. It was intimidating at first for a few reasons. I didn't know how to write "good" articles, nor did I completely understand the website. My first article was about political efficacy, or, "the citizens' faith and trust in government and their belief that they can understand and influence political affairs." It was a boring first article, I know, don't haze me. I made a lot of mistakes early on, which I know, as the EIC for my community, cringe at while editing my creators' articles. Using a Google image for my cover photo, not having enough listicles to be sufficient, writing unappealing headlines (not much has changed with the last one, I envy those who can effortlessly write savvy headlines). Over time, I learned and improved, through the articles that I deemed important, such as "Legislators Over The Age of 65 Need To Stop Pushing Their 'Young Adult' Political Agenda" to those with lesser importance, such as "7 Low Maintenance Pets" and so on.

Through the better and worse articles, the ones with view counts in the thousands and the ones that didn't even break 100, Odyssey has taught me many things.

1. How to write. No matter the profession anyone goes into, writing will always be an important asset so you can communicate effectively. Writing weekly articles helps with such a thing.

2. How to work with others. Although Odyssey doesn't necessarily force traditional teamwork, being apart of a community helps learn how to share ideas and work to make your community bigger and better.

3. It allows me to be heard. There is no way for people to hear what you want them to unless you put yourself out there so that they have the chance to listen. Odyssey, by publishing articles on the web, and the fact that articles can be about literally anything helps with that.

Am I majoring in English, creative writing, or something of that nature? No, but that doesn't mean I can't write for Odyssey; I joined Odyssey to be apart of an organization on campus to meet friends and put it on job applications in the future, but I've gotten so much more out of being a creator and EIC for Odyssey than I ever intended.