As members of society, millennials are expected to become involved and to share our voices. We are expected to be able to form knowledgeable opinions on important issues. However, when we do try to become involved and aware, there are those people who criticize us and label us as entitled and act like we have no right to discuss issues that evoke debate and in-depth conversations. We are entitled to our opinions and our freedom to express them creatively. Lucky for us, Odyssey provides such a platform for us to do so.
The Odyssey website states, "Odyssey democratizes content, giving people the opportunity to share what's most important to them and their communities, enriching everyone with broader, more honest perspectives on topics they care about". From the inside, I wouldn't change a thing about this description. There are many key things here to point out to Odyssey haters.
Odyssey isn't meant to be a primary source of news coverage, nor does it claim to be. Odyssey is meant to spark opinions and thought-provoking topics based on issues from our daily lives, others' lives, reality or the news. If you ever read an Odyssey article that you don't agree with, instead of assuming that it was written by an uneducated, overly entitled millennial who is writing just to spew nonsense, stop and realize that it is an opinion piece. Even though your opinion may not align with the article does not mean that the article is wrong or that the writer doesn't understand the topic that they are writing about. They simply have a different take on the topic than you.
We write pieces based on our knowledge of topics. Though some pieces may not cover every aspect of certain topics, we always challenge ourselves to continue to dig deeper. When something sparks our interest, we write an article about it, however, it does not stop there. We are continually growing our understandings. We realize that we do not know everything and that our opinions are not single correct ideas. The point of Odyssey is to initiate engagement and interest and to make people want to dig deeper into important issues on their own.
I think that everyone can learn from Odyssey and its creators. When we share articles and opinions we do so in a civil way. We create response articles to those we don't agree with but as a community, we respect the differences in our content. We understand that the important thing is to express ourselves. We use a creative outlook like Odyssey to debate and explore opinions in a constructive matter, something that many adults cannot do.
I just want to end by saying how proud I am of all of my fellow content creators for producing pieces that hold immense amounts of meaning and value. I learn so much from all of you every single week. Reading all of your content the day it gets published makes Mondays a lot more bearable. Keep doing what you're doing. And to our viewers... there is an incredible amount of shared intelligence within the Odyssey community and so many of these young writers are going to go extremely far in life. With that being said, I'd advise you not to doubt us or underestimate us. We are authors. We are creators. We are artists. We are inspirations. We are so much more than a bunch of "entitled millennials".
