I have always hated writing growing up. I just never felt like I was good enough at it, plus I am a horrible speller (which I'm not afraid to admit to....anymore). I'm also really bad at editing, I can never tell what's a run on sentence or where a comma should really go.

However, my hatred for writing was put to an end once I got into Junior High. One of my classes was Literacy and our teacher loved Fridays because I mean who doesn't right? Every Friday we got to write about something, she would put different prompts on the board that we got to choose from. We were able to make up a story around the title. With this freedom and practice, I started to develop a passion for writing.

After getting to write in her class about whatever, I soon began loving to write whenever I could. I started to enjoy English more as well. After starting high school I decided that I would keep a journal for myself. I even ended up taking creative writing in high school! I seriously enjoyed making up stories. I even kept my old stories because looking back, it's nice to see how much I have grown as a writer

By keeping the journal it helped me get out my anger, confusion, secrets, and memories. I love looking back at what I've gone through growing up. The conversations I had with people that I wrote in the journal to remember. I was able to express my emotions with hurting or offending anyone it could have been directed towards.

Writing helps me a lot. It helps me with what I want to say even if I can't say it out loud. If I'm angry, I write about it and I feel better. As time went on to me picking what I wanted to do for a living, I was uncertain. All I knew I wanted to do was something I loved and enjoyed. As it got closer to my senior year, I needed to decide what it was I wanted to do.

I was stuck between two careers paths either social worker or anything with writing.

From that, I made my mind up that I was going to be a writer, any kind of writer I can be. However, that's not what happened once I got into college. I choose the path of social working. With today's age, I knew I needed to pick the more practical of the two. However, my love for writing never died it just kept growing.

Then one night, my best friend asked if I would be interested in writing for the Odyssey. Without any hesitation, I said yes. I thought about it as the night went on but I was absolutely going to. I mean, how could I not. It could potentially help me become a better writer, which in a way I feel like it has helped me and helped me improve myself as both a writer and a person.

Before this I never would let anyone see my writing unless I had to. Other then that I was too afraid, even writing my first article I was scared and nervous. I was afraid no one pay attention to them and they would just scroll past them. But as time went on I started to get more confident in my writing. I've even had one of my articles go viral!

Writing gave me a confidence I never knew I could have. I guess it was in my all along and, with the help of writing my emotions and creating all of these stories, I was able to bring that confidence out.