For several months now I have had the privilege of writing for a wonderful platform, the one you're reading right now, Odyssey. As my time writing for Odyssey comes to a close I couldn’t help but reflect on what this experience has taught me.

When I was asked to be a part of a team of writers I was nervous — I hadn’t ever written anything for public reading before. Before this, my writing consisted of a bunch of chicken scratch thrown together in a raggedy old binder and hidden under my mattress so no one would read it. However, in these past few months, I have discovered that the joys of writing are even greater when the words written are used to impact others. When I took a step of courage and shared my thoughts in words for others to read something came alive in me. I realized that being a writer is not just something that I do; it’s who I am.

Being a writer means being brave. It means spilling your guts on a piece of paper and hoping the people who read it don’t chew it up and spit it out. It means writing the things that make you cry because you know someone else needs to hear it. It means writing the things that need to be said even when they are hard to hear. It means taking risks and making a difference.

Being a writer means not being able to sleep at night because words and stories are running through your mind and won’t stop until they come out on paper. It means constantly being in two worlds at once — the real one and the one ever evolving inside your mind. Being a writer means being different, a little spacey, and always lost in your own world.

Ultimately, being a writer means having a voice that can’t help but be heard. My journey with the Odyssey has taught me that. It has taught me to follow my dreams, my heart, and my passions. Writing has taught me to unashamedly be myself — my quirky, chicken scratch, goofy self. The deepest part of my soul has and always will be that of a writer.

Thank you to Odyssey for giving me the wings I needed to leave my nest.

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Earnest Hemingway