For 11 years now, I have attempted to DIY just about everything I own. Sometimes I don’t have the cash to drop on something I know I could do myself, sometimes I know I could do it better, make it suit me more, sometimes I want something no one else has, sometimes I just want to make something to see if I can. I have painted, decoupaged, doodled on, sewn, written, coded, knit, crocheted, embroidered or glittered just about everything I have ever owned or wanted to own at some point or another. Nothing makes me prouder than saying that I had made something. I, of my own volition, got it together enough that I created a thing. What could be more exciting?

Over the years, this has succeeded sometimes and failed miserably other times. In the eighth grade, I once spent $75 on rolls of red and turquoise duct tape in an attempt to create an entire dress to wear to school on an out-of-uniform day. I used almost all of this tape to make a huge sheet of “fabric,” duct tape stuck to itself over and over again. I cut my fingers up with scissors in my pursuit of an entirely duct taped dress. At the end of this tremendous effort, a full day spent in the living room of the apartment my family lived in, I ended up with a completely unusable $75 sheet of duct tape. It was a disaster. My grandmother nearly killed me when she found out I’d blown all my birthday gift cards on it.

I had about half a roll of red duct tape left, a tragic survivor of the whole debacle. I, determined to get something good out of all these craft supplies, spent another few hours fashioning a pair of shoes out of the duct tape. They looked like slip-on house shoes made of the ugliest, most wrinkly red patent leather to exist. They were hideous. But it worked. I had somewhat wearable shoes that I had formed from the rubble of a disaster of my own making. I wore them everywhere. I wore them until they literally shredded off my feet mid-step. These shoes were a testament to my own ingenuity, my own ability to do something for myself. They were awesome.

The quest for DIY continues with Odyssey, Millsaps. I have spent a lot of my first year here trying to create my own outlets for students to be creative without someone telling them what to say. I have released three issues of my campus zine, MILLSAPS NOW, which has been an incredible way to see what this campus has to say. I have loved every second of forging my own path at this school. Now, with the wonderful backup of Odyssey and our excellent writers, I have become part of another exciting thing. We’re doing it ourselves. We’re saying what we want to say. I feel so overjoyed to announce the launch of Odyssey here at Millsaps, announce that we have a great team of talented people writing every week and announce that we want you to come work with us. Let’s get it going, Millsapians.