It has been over half a year since I joined Odyssey Online. Since I have joined, I have written countless articles and opinion pieces about all of the things I enjoyed. Some of my work was good. Some of my work was not so good. Every week I would sit down and concentrate on creating brand new material for those who were willing to listen. Consider this piece a “thank you” for being a part of Odyssey Online.

Networking is such a funny thing, is it not? Every single day we meet new and old people alike, leaving some sort of impact on them. I was approached to join Odyssey by a young woman who was in my orientation group at the beginning of freshman year. We did not know each other too well for I never really talked, but we eventually we caught up at a formal dinner. Afterward, I was messaged by her about this new program that was coming to our college: Odyssey Online. The idea was fairly simple: you write at least five hundred words about anything you want every week. That is it. I figured that this was a great opportunity and decided to join.

Similar to everything in life, there are always two sides to each situation. While my career here at Odyssey was a fun concept, sometimes it was hard to even write anything. Writer’s Block is quite real, especially when you have to write something new each week. I give much credit to those who write continuously for a living; there are only so many words in my mind in which to write down. And then there was the writing incentive. For those who do not know, the author of the written piece that gets the most social media shares and views receives a prize of twenty dollars. I will not go into the argument of click bait or having a lot of “friends” on social media, but my articles never seemed to keep up with others. While some people wrote about why they love autumn (which is great; I will not discourage anyone from expressing themselves), I wrote about obscure concepts like film criticism and strange children’s books. I had my usual fans but I concede the fact that people were not particularly attracted to my writing.

Do not get me wrong, I am not complaining. I did not consider myself to be a skilled writer when I joined Odyssey. The mere concept of writing about what you enjoy most in this world had me sold. However, as these past months went by, I found my writing to become increasingly more advanced. For that, I am thankful for I will carry all of the skills Odyssey taught me with me for as long as I possibly can. And for those reading this, I do not discourage you from pursuing these ventures. You can be whoever you want to be and you should follow your dreams wherever they leave you. I thank the Odyssey team for allowing me to express myself in such beautiful ways and I wish you all the luck for the future!