As a child, I had always loved to write; I still do. Writing was such a fun pastime for me, and I even wanted to be an author at some point. However, I dismissed that dream when someone had told me "that's stupid" and "writer's don't make any money, how are you going to actually support yourself?" To be honest, I had no idea.

After that, I gave up on writing altogether, except for school essays. It was hard to do, but I went about a year or two without writing. Soon after those two years, I fell into a dark spot in my life. I didn't know who to talk to about what was going on, so I picked up a notebook and pen and started to write. I jotted down what was happening, how I felt, what I thought - anything that came to mind. Writing out my feelings made me so relieved; I was able to talk about everything without actually opening up to someone, and I rekindled my love for writing.

Around my junior or senior year of high school, I found an article link on Facebook. The title was interesting to me, so I tapped on it and read through it. Spoiler: it was an Odyssey article. I shared it on my Facebook and soon started going to the website itself, reading through many pieces of writing. At the time, I had no idea that Odyssey was a college based platform, but I knew that I was in love and that I had wanted to be a part of it.

In my first week of being a freshman, I had seen a booth set up and instantly recognized the logo as Odyssey's flame. I talked to the two girls at the booth about joining, but when I left I still felt that my writings wouldn't ever be good enough to go on the site. However, you will never know until you try, so I became a writer at Odyssey, and it is the best decision I have made in a long time.

Working here has taught me so many things. It taught me to speak about a plethora of issues, write about whatever is on my mind, and to be confident in the articles that I write. Odyssey reminded me why I loved to write, and for that, I owe it so much.