Three years ago this month, I applied for Odyssey at my school, Rowan University. I was a sophomore. It was perfect for what I was doing. I wanted to write about my feelings and more because I could not find a better outlet. I wanted to manage my schoolwork while writing articles every week.

I wanted to challenge myself.

So, I got in. I was so excited yet determined to write my first article. In fact, it was basically already completed before I got the interview. I sent it to the editor, and it went live in days.

Odyssey never felt like a chore to me. It was required that I write an article every week, but that did not scare me because it was like taking a class. I was lucky to have a caring Editor-in-Chief, other editors, and a President to help me and the rest of the creators. Some thought of Odyssey as strict, but I never felt that way or had an experience where it was strict or too hard to handle.

A year went by, and I had submitted over 60 articles. I never used a skip or took a week off. There were times when I hit some writer's block, and I struggled to find the perfect words, but I would be back on my feet in no time. If Odyssey was stressful at all, that was very rare for me.

Before the two-year anniversary of my membership, I was offered one of the Contributing Editor positions. This meant I was assigned a group of creators on our team, and my job was to edit those articles and send them to the publisher. Since there were so many creators, there were many Contributing Editors.

I was happy and pleased to be able to edit and write at the same time. Although I had this opportunity, this also meant that the responsibilities increased, and I had to work on my time management skills.

In January 2018, after a summer and fall of editing, I was "promoted" to Editor-in-Chief by our former President. All Contributing Editors were eliminated, and Odyssey's policy changed. However, these editors were assigned to other jobs, such as Social Media Manager or something of the like.

My job now was to edit all articles in a timely fashion; everything came to me. I still had the chance to continue writing my own articles.

It has been three years since I applied to Odyssey just with the intention of writing articles only.

What an adventure it has been. I write articles while editing, and I still have not missed a deadline. I cannot believe I have three years' worth of ideas stuck in my brain, but I learn something new every day. Editing is something I have come to enjoy. I look forward to reading every creator's articles.

I am in grad school now, and the workload is unbearable. However, I will stay committed until I graduate. Basically a year and a half left of Odyssey, editing and writing, but I am excited to see what the future holds and what I will write about next. It will be a sad parting when I go, but Odyssey has done so much for me. I can do nothing but thank them for having me.