I don't really know what to write about right now. You know those moments where you just have a million different things going on in your head and can't get any of them down on paper? Sounds about right. I never really had an issue with writer's block, I would always just be able to figure something out in a "spur of the moment" kind of way and it would turn out fine. In high school, most of my essays were written one or two nights before and I got A's on them, so I didn't see a problem with it. Writing for Odyssey is different; it's a platform other college students, parents, friends, teachers, and people you care about look to see what you're creating. I want to create something meaningful, but I'm not sure how.

I think I chose to apply to write for Odyssey because it was like an open invitation saying "pssst! Sami! You can write about whatever your little ginger heart desires and other people will actually read it!!" I mean, that's pretty cool. I wrote papers for high school that only my teachers or my parents read and now I can write for the whole world to see?! Awesome. Except, it's not that easy. You have to basically shove your articles down people's throats and share and share and share and share and share and share and share and share and shall I go on? I kind of miss just writing to write, not for shares or likes, but for me. However, finding that some people really do appreciate your work is extremely meaningful.

I came into college, into freshman year to be exact, wanting to be a neurosurgeon. That hasn't changed at all, but writing for Odyssey has opened another world to me, a world where I can take hundreds of different letters and turn them into words, turn those words into sentences, and those sentences into paragraphs and maybe, just maybe, someone will read them.

I think I continue to write for Odyssey because I can express whatever is on my mind. One day, I'd like to "make palaces out of paragraphs" like Alexander Hamilton, but for now, I'll stick to my "500 words about one thing or another."