"It isn't a real job." "Why should I take it seriously?" "The Odyssey is full of nothing but click-bait." These are only a small sampling of the comments I've heard about Odyssey Online. I'll admit: I wasn't too sure of it the first time I saw an article from this platform shared on Facebook. It wasn't terribly well-written and didn't seem to have a point to it. And, for people like me who had never heard of Odyssey before, that wasn't a good first article to see.
First impressions are everything, especially for a platform like Odyssey where you can write about whatever you want. Unfortunately, people have a habit of basing their whole opinion off of one thing. That's why Odyssey needs all the strong content it can get. And guess what? It has it. You might just have to do a little digging to find it. Or, better yet, write it yourself.
No, writing for Odyssey isn't paid, but not everything is. Writing for Odyssey isn't volunteer work. It isn't an internship. It's a job as serious as—if not more than—the one you had in high school. There's a level of professionalism you're expected to uphold. There are deadlines to follow. You have to communicate, just as you would if it was an actual newspaper. At the very core of it all is the privilege every content creator is being given to write the content they want to see. You miss deadlines? You're out. It's simple, and one article a week (at a minimum of 400-500 words) isn't hard to do.
Writing for Odyssey has been one of the best decisions I've made in the last year. Why? Because, at the very least, it's given me traction to get my name out there. I want to be a published writer some day, and this platform gives me articles for a portfolio. It gives me experience. Most importantly, I get to write about the things I care about that were otherwise unlikely to be published somewhere else. And these three things aren't unique to me. They exist and apply to every content creator we have.
A little over a month ago, I opened up about my sexual assault. Creator Sarah Wilkinson was able to articulate her thoughts and ideas about how Champlain College could pay adjuncts better. Editor-in-chief Jessica Demarest got to talk about why anorexia isn't a body type. Odyssey is in a unique position where all of these fit the content they're looking for. It's unlikely that any of us would have been able to get this published elsewhere without a few rejections first.
Here at Odyssey, it's easy to get our voices out. It's easy to talk about what's important and what needs to be heard. The privilege of being able to write whatever you want doesn't come around a lot, and it's one that shouldn't go to waste. I can't imagine a better place to write for free than one that lets you say what you want.
You don't have to be a "good writer" (there are editors for that). You don't have to have "experience" (you're here to get some). But there's something that everyone has an opinion on—something everyone is passionate about. Why not write it down?
