I honestly can't believe that I have been writing for Odyssey for a little over a year now. I feel like I just started writing a few weeks ago. I remember when the Editor-In-Chief at the time, Kathryn, said that I would become a content creator for the Odyssey. Feelings of happiness and nervousness settled in. Now that I had this amazing opportunity to write about a wide range of topics, I didn't know where to start.
I still remember my first article. I don't remember the title of the article but I do remember it was about my personal experience as an undergrad at the University of the Pacific. Many people read it and told me it was a well-written article. Hearing that feedback and getting that affirmation that people liked my writing boosted my confidence as a writer.
Before writing for Odyssey, I felt that I was not that good of a writer and I was afraid that people would not find my writing to be interesting. However, that personal fear I had about my writing skills was broken by the feedback that I received from my peers.
As I kept writing for Odyssey, I saw a huge improvement in my writing skills, especially in the second half of the academic year, when I enrolled in a course called "How English Works." I used my writing for the Odyssey as a way to keep practicing my writing.
However, being a content creator has had its rough times. As any writer would know, we sometimes experience what is called writer's block. Writer's block is where the writer, or in my case the content creator, runs out of ideas and hits a wall in their creativity. The number of times that I have hit that wall has been many. That is one thing that I wish was made easier by Odyssey. I do appreciate that we have the deadlines of submitting an article a week. But there are times that I draw a blank on ideas and have to come up with an article on the spot.
Having writer's block is one of the worst things that can happen to a writer. However, I have managed to keep articles coming along every week. For example, this article came to be because I happened to remember that my first article got published just over a year ago. When I really sit down and think, I have lots of ideas as to what I can write about because I have a wide variety of topics in my head. There is a catch to that though. The catch is that I just don't feel 100% comfortable writing about all of those topics, much less having them published. I am crossing that bridge as I write. Some of my best writing happens when I'm passionate about something. The articles that I hope to one day publish are about things that are part of my identity, but sadly, I fear to write them down and have people read them.
But one day, I do hope to write and publish those articles
