This week and article marks my last time writing for Odyssey. I have done a lot of thinking and soul-searching and have realized that I need to put more energy into other things and one of the sacrifices that I need to make is that I need to stop writing for this platform.

That being said, I am so thankful for this organization and I wanted to impart some wisdom on those who may be thinking about joining an Odyssey team as well as share some valuable lessons that I have learned while writing here.

1. Time management

I once had a friend tell me that College is pretty much a time management test. He was so right. College, while it is the best time of your life, is a huge test to see if you are able to manage your time responsibly. Add in something like writing for a weekly publication, and you are really being tested on whether you can manage the time or lack thereof that you are given to write an article or if you can not. I have had countless times where I was rushed to write something and I did not give myself enough time to do it and my final product suffered because of it.

2. Coming up with ideas

I have learned from Odyssey how to come up with ideas that would work well for stories in a short amount of time. One challenge is always keeping your mind sharp and choosing what to and what not to say. There have been times when I had to come up ideas on the fly for my stories, and it worked.

3. Understanding your voice

As a Christian, one of my favorite books in the bible is the book of Esther. A quick summary of Esther is that she was a woman who had a lot of power and her voice was important to those who were around her. As a writer, the responsibility and voice that I have is huge. I wrote an article this past summer after the wave of killings of unarmed black men and police and a large group of people read the article and responded to it, thanking me for the words that I said. It was in that moment that I realized that as a writer, I was responsible for people who are making choices on how they feel about certain things. That is a huge deal.

4. Understanding your strengths

It took me a while to figure out what my niche on Odyssey was, but when I realized what it was, it made my life easier for knowing what I was good at doing. Writing for this publication has been great because I have figured out my strengths for writing, which was something I did not know going in.

5. Getting a presence on social media

Social media is both a blessing and a curse. But, for getting the word out on certain things, it is so great. From Odyssey, I have learned that there are ways to use Social Media to get the word out on what I care about, which is a skill that I will use for the rest of my life.

Once again, I cannot express how grateful I am that I have had the chance to write for Odyssey, it was great way to keep my mind sharp as well as being able to do what I love.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves writing stories and having their voices heard.