In January of this year, I was fortunate enough to be 'signed on' as a writer for Shenandoah University's branch of "The Odyssey." The Odyssey is a website that gives University students around the country a professional outlet to create content ( as you probably know, since you have clicked on this article). I have been responsible for writing an article a week on whatever topic I wanted. I love writing, in all mediums, so having a deadline and a platform to share my thoughts was super appealing.
I have written an article a week for the past seven months, which equals thirty weeks of writing. In those seventh months I have written 32 articles, one of which went viral and got up to 8,000 social media shares around the globe. Odyssey has given me such an incredible platform to share my ideas, thoughts, experiences, jokes, and boast about how incredible my friends are.
Above: Me when I have a good idea
Writing an article a week is actually a bigger commitment than you might think: having ideas and article topics is probably what I struggle with the most. Many of my original team members are unfortunately no longer writing for "The Odyssey" for that reason. I now have a running list in the Notes app on my iPhone titled "Article Ideas".
I totally understood the desire to quit writing, sometimes you're just tired and burnt out and would rather produce no work than bad work. There were so many weeks I had no idea what I was going to write about. Boggled at how I was to create a '300 word' minimum on the empty idea list that was in my brain. I absolutely have had some article flops, equaling two social media shares: one of which was my own.
Above: Me writing anything, ever.
The deadline element was definitely something that kept me accountable, because I knew it would force me to create new content, even when I wasn't feeling like it. Since I have metaphorically tied myself to that deadline, I have reinforced the importance of being reliable.
Not every single article that I've written within these past seven months is something I would have submitted to a magazine, as sometimes they had just lousy topics or rushed narratives because of the deadline, but I have absolutely grown as a writer and person because of this experience.
People fear that being proud of yourself will cause you to appear big headed and conceited, and generally those are some characteristics of pompous people. But I am proud of myself for writing thirty two articles for the Odyssey and am very thankful for the opportunity for my voice to be heard.
