Odyssey is an online platform for colleges nationwide that’s delegated to be “the voice of our generation.” It’s crazy to me how often I see Odyssey articles on Facebook now; I see at least three every time I scroll down my timeline.
There’s definitely a lot of complaining that revolves around Odyssey as well about articles that start with “An Open Letter to…” or “10 Reasons Why ....“ To be honest, I’m not the biggest advocate for these types of writing, and I’ve written one listicle the past nine months as a writer, though they really do account for Odyssey’s most popular content. While I do not take issue with the people that write these types of articles, I, however, write for Odyssey for different purposes.
I joined Odyssey right when it was introduced to our school, just at the beginning of our new 2015-2016 academic year. First and foremost, I wanted to write because I felt like as a science major I’d been missing out on getting in touch with my creative side, exchanging that time to memorize polyatomic ions or learn the anatomy of a fetal pig (which I do love, do not mistake me there). I go to a liberal arts school and while I’m constantly surrounded by the arts, I never really had the chance or time to engage in them thus far in my undergraduate career.
Secondly, I have a dream of publishing books later in life most likely on neurophilosophy and psychiatric disorders as I learn about them through my primary career as a researcher. While advancing my scientific career through my education, I’ve provided myself the opportunity each week to practice my professional writing on literally any topic I want. Though, after writing for nearly this entire academic year, I retrospectively discovered a much more rewarding and fulfilling reason why I write for Odyssey.
As you could imagine, as a non-listicle/ “open letter” writer I don’t get many shares or reads though you’d be surprised to find out how many people actually don’t thoroughly read every link they share on Facebook or other social media platforms. It truly doesn’t bother me because a lot of the times I get nervous about what people will think of the things I write about. Interestingly, though, there are some of those people still out there- the ones who romanticize writing like myself and fully take something in, especially when there’s something in the title that resonates with them immediately.
Unfortunately, some of the topics I’ve written on, specifically sexual assault, sobriety, depression and anxiety disorders, resonate with people I’d never expect it to, or from people I didn’t have the privilege of speaking to earlier. Fortunately, though, people reached out to me either in person, via text or calls, or over Facebook Messenger expressing their thoughts on these topics and sharing their stories with me.
It’s made me feel less alone in my thoughts and that there are people that applaud sharing delicate ideas and stories. Finding comfort and power with others in our shared experiences and opinions has helped me learn so much about this world we live in, and I learn more every day.
Opening and exchanging dialogue is really eye-opening and being granted the privileged position of having a professional, published platform to speak from and share is humbling. Writing for Odyssey allows me to express my voice freely, and has rewarded me with intimate connections with faces on campus, even some people I’ve never even met before and probably never will, all across the country. A wonderful person, Noureen, even cited an article I did on science and religion in a paper for her class, and I had a phone interview with her which was pretty crazy -- I’ve never even met her, and I still haven’t! But we support each other through our cyber-space world. All in all, though I don’t get the crazy amount of shares a lot of other Odyssey writers do or the direct $20 deposit often for most shares of the week, the most important and fulfilling goal I’ve set for myself, whether it’s explicitly expressed to me or not, is that I inspire a thought in someone else because of my writing. It doesn’t have to be a thought of agreement or support -- it could be a critical thought, an inspiration to make something different, or a moment of recognition that someone else in the world has a voice that deserves to be heard as well. Though the articles are available to anyone and everyone, I try to speak to the individual, and for that individual to bring themselves to a mindful state of the collective of the world again.
