It was a cold evening back in January and I was eating dinner with my friend Abby. She had recently begun writing for a neat little website called “Odyssey.” Anyway, apparently the editor at the time had challenged all of the writers to recruit more people for the website’s Spring Arbor community. So naturally, Abby signed me up while I sat there saying “I don’t know, I don’t really want to commit to writing an article every week...,” but I decided to give it a shot.

And I love it. I like getting my voice out there, even though it can sometimes be confusing. I also appreciate the challenge of getting something prepared every week. It’s a fun little “job.” I wouldn’t say that it’s a hobby necessarily because sometimes I still get lazy and procrastinate up until about three hours until I’m supposed to submit the article. And there are times (like right now, when this is being written) when I almost forgot that I have to submit an article and my friend reminded me to which I replied “UUUGGGGHHHH. Do I have to? I wanna just read…” Like I said, it’s a challenge, but I like challenges.

Writing articles on this website also provides me with writing experience. Since my first article, I definitely feel like my writing has improved. Every week requires me to write about 500 words in an article that I think people should read or that they can relate to. This means I have about 2000 words minimum a month. I know that’s not a lot, but having to come up with different articles all the time gets my brain working and makes me think about how I can make my article better than the previous week. It also is really helpful to have two editors that read over the drafts to make sure that they’re the best that they can be.

Finally, there are the monetary incentives. After a certain amount of views or if my article gains the most shares of my community that week, I can get paid! It’s not much, but I figure as long as I keep improving my writing and building my social media presence, I could build up a pretty good amount of money to help with college and other necessities.

Many changes have happened since I began writing for this website. We’ve lost and gained many writers. Spring Arbor had an editor change. Odyssey got a new look. And I’ve stuck with it. I may just be stubborn, refusing to quit even when I get lazy. But the challenge, the fact that I can tell my writing is improving and the possibility of earning money for writing really helps me stick with this website and they are overall the reason that I write for Odyssey.