I can't believe that I've already been writing for this amazing publication for one year. In the spirit of anniversaries, I thought I'd take the time to reflect on my experiences and the lessons I've learned along the way.
Freedom. That's the one word that defines my experience more than anything else. For the past 52 weeks, I have had the liberty of choosing various topics and subjects to write about. I was never told what to write. I was never told that I couldn't write something, whereas academia is the complete opposite. You have to answer specific questions, meet a certain page requirement, and structure it according to the hour-glass model. Odyssey is different - and that's why I love it so much. I have the choice to write, anything and everything and in my opinion, there's nothing more freeing than that choice.
Though there's nothing more frustrating than having writer's block, I'm thankful for those weeks where I struggled to find something to write about for my article. It taught me a lot, not only as a writer, but as a human being, because sometimes we all fall into ruts and need a little inspiration to help pick us back up. My fellow Creators enabled me to do just that on several occasions. Though I've never met them, their writing moves me and makes me feel like they're my best friends.
There's over 14,000 Content Creators writing for Odyssey and that statistic makes me smile. Whenever I have a spare moment, you can usually find me scrolling through article after article and each writer provides me with interesting insight and commentary. Even if I don't agree with a Creator's opinion, I respect that individual's bravery and courage, because it's hard to share personal stories on a public domain. Most of all, I commend all of us for ignoring the haters and continuing to express what's on our minds.
Millennials are given such a bad rep, for many reasons, but most of all for being lazy, selfish, and unmotivated. When I look at the content published on Odyssey, all of that smack talk just disappears. We write about things that matter to us, and most importantly, we write about things that matter, period. If you've never read an Odyssey article that you've related to or identified with completely, you're lying. If you haven't smiled, laughed, or been impressed by what a Creator has had to say, you're lying again. Writing, just like music and art has the capacity to affect us in ways that we never could've imagined. It's powerful. We're powerful, and we've all got something worth saying.
This past year writing for Odyssey has honestly changed my life, and recently I've been appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of TCNJ's community and I can't think of a better way to celebrate our one year together.
Thank you, Odyssey, for all you've done for me. I hope I make you proud as an Editor-in-Chief.
