I want to start off by saying how thankful I am to have the opportunity to write for the Odyssey. I love writing about different topics every week that range from facts to straight up opinions or even just emotions that I'm having. Recently on one of my articles someone personally went out of their way to send me in my opinion a very hurtful message over Facebook. In this article one of things I want to bring up is how I felt about this hurtful message. To start things off when I first read it I broke down I was so unhappy I cried for probably twenty minutes over one persons opinion on it, but the first and most important reason I write for the Odyssey is because I absolutely love my peers that are in my community. When I told them about the message they were all so supportive and just so kind and I honestly couldn't ask for a better group of people to work with, you guys are absolutely amazing! So to the person who wanted to make me feel like crap for Twenty minutes I wanna say thank you because it made me realize what great people I have in front of me and that I shouldn't care what you think, and now I don't care what you think. I don't write for your happiness. I write for my personal happiness, I write to inform people, I write to make other people feel better, I write to express myself and expressing yourself is what the odyssey is all about. To every single Odyssey writer out there I just want to say that if you get hate for what you write about than good for you, it means your becoming stronger and it means that your article is making an impact. So to all my haters out there I wanna say thank you for making me stronger I really appreciate it.

The odyssey brings so much happiness to my life and I hope to anyone who reads this who doesn't write for the odyssey already will try and get involved with such a great community and program. Before the odyssey I had no way to voice my opinion or my feelings to people all around the country. Writing for the Odyssey has given me better writing skills and a new hobby. Another benefit I have gained from the Odyssey is confidence and bravery. I'm not afraid to voice my feelings or my opinions, give me a topic and I'll write about it, you may not like what I write about it but I will give my thoughts on it. Even though I may not know my peers personally I still think of them as great friends because in the community we are always there to support each other even if we completely disagree with each other. I can't wait to see where this journey takes me and my other peers. I hope to anyone who wants to get involved does it. who knows it could lead to a better you!