Admittedly, there are much harder things you could do in life. But putting myself out on a writing platform was one of the most gutsy things I've ever done for myself.

As an overall paranoiac, I can ruminate into spells of doubt in myself and in others' perception of me. "Did she really mean it when she said I was being a fair teammate?" "Could it be that me being here, ordering with almond milk, makes the ladies at Dunkin's shifts a little harder?" "Why is everyone crossed-legged with their body language facing away from me?" Yup, it be a real pain in the biomass that is my twenty year-old brain. My doubt often confines me to be the most introverted person in the room. And when you enjoy being in the company of others, it can be no fun.

Writing reveals all those spells I have whirring in my head. It can make me feel vulnerable writing a weak piece and then having to share it with the world anyways. However, it can also be very freeing. My friends can see my humanity and they can track the days I'm really focusing on my school work as opposed to putting a ton of energy into my articles. As a person who has trouble sharing my harder experiences with acquaintances, writing gives me a way to share my stories to a general audience instead of gearing it towards one person and hoping that they'll still approve of me.This bond between piece and writer fortifies my desire to keep writing on a platform.

When I do put my heart into a piece, I realize I get a lot of positive feedback. Sometimes, a friend can empathize with my experience or communicate the shared feelings they have with the message of an article. Being able to make a connection with someone through writing is a dream I had always hoped to achieve. It is very hard to get even one person to read your articles, let alone like it or share it or tell you how much they enjoyed it!

I think many writers share the idea that they want their pieces to reflect their best selves. We want to tailor our work to an audience that will see us as respectable, open-minded, and articulate, among other attributes. We feel pressure if we think about writing as a way to prove ourselves. Yet, we revel in class activities involving freely writing our thoughts out on paper.

As a writer for Odyssey, I've learned that I don't always have to be my perfect self when I'm publishing an article. I can do my best to conceive humorous rhetoric and then completely fail, because that's the only way I'm going to learn. I can try to put facts together into an article only to have a friend tip me off on a typo, because that's how I gain the insight I need to improve. At the end of the day, I am not reflecting my best self; I'm revealing my real self. And I wouldn't want to have it any other way.