Talking has always been one of my favorite hobbies. Growing up, I loved conversing with anyone who would engage with me; my personality can easily be defined by my affinity for verbal banter. I could speak in coherent sentences before I took my first steps, and it was much harder for me to learn how to ride a bike than it was to learn how to rhyme. Words have always been my greatest defenders and my closest friends. My life simply wouldn’t be the same without them.

While talking is relatively effortless for me, writing has always been difficult and threatening. I’m not talking about analytical, scientific writing that’s littered with “big words” and ridiculously long sentences; I’m talking about raw writing, a kind of writing that forces you to scavenge the very essence of who you are. When you sit down to create this sort of literary artwork, you are forced to face every insecurity, doubt, and imperfection that ails you. This can be an incredibly daunting task, especially for someone who hides behind a mask of perfection.

To be successful at this sort of writing, one must either be naturally uninhibited or clinically insane. You can’t hide behind body language, inflection or “ums and aahs” when you write. Success in this task is defined by a single mantra — submit to your personal demons.

Believe me, I have demons. I hide behind verbal banter because in the midst of conversation I can pretend to be a character other than myself. But when I sit down to do some raw writing, I am forced to place the mask aside. I’m a writer because I need to be.

As I begin my relationship with Odyssey, I want to get something perfectly clear with you. I don’t care if I offend you or make you uncomfortable. I don’t care if you don’t want to hear what I have to say because, quite frankly, I’m going to say it. I really don’t care if you like me because that’s not why I’m doing this. Some days I will write about trivial and humorous things, and other days I’m going to lay it all out on the line. I am writing because it is the best therapy that I can give to myself. Once I’ve become honest about who I am as a writer, I think my relationship with language will reach incredible heights.

I strongly believe that this world is best defined by it’s countless perspectives. Every person has dreams, hopes, ambitions, wants and needs. The greatest of these needs is the need to be heard. I implore you to join me in conversation at any opportunity because there is something fundamentally human in sharing one’s voice.

Ernest Hemingway once said, “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."