Over the years, English was what I considered to be my favorite subject in school. I wasn’t a fan of the actual subject of English, but how I would have writing assignments to do for class. Creative writing assignments have always been my favorite. Before high school, I never realized how much I liked writing until I noticed how much time I spent writing in my free time.

To be honest, when I was in middle school I used to write cheesy poems and songs almost daily. Whether I was bored in class, bored at home, or just procrastinating on homework, I would write something, anything. Some people doodle on their papers, I wrote. My writings weren’t great, but at the time I was proud of them. I still have some stashed in my room and they make me laugh when I look at them. Even still, I loved to write.

By the time I got into high school, English classes started to be more about papers and essays, which I enjoyed. For the most part. Sometimes I didn’t want anything to do with my assignments, especially when they were long ones. For a couple years, I kept my writing going, but eventually I stopped almost completely. I was too busy with school, work, and applying for college to make time to write.

When I got to college, I started getting assigned more papers again. One of my first semesters I took an intro to writing class and I really enjoyed it. We got to write creatively, and I liked improving myself with the teacher’s comments. Writing usually came easy to me, but I liked having someone tell me what I could fix to make it better. Once again, my time was filled with school work, so after that class I stopped writing again. About a year ago, my friend reached out to me and asked if I wanted to be a writer for The Odyssey. I gladly accepted. A chance to write about whatever I wanted and share it with my friends and family was exciting to me. This was mostly because not a lot of people knew how much I enjoyed writing. It wasn’t something I shared because I was always afraid of criticism. I’ve come to learn, however, that criticism is great for a writer.

Now, I write simply because I love to. I like the idea of sharing my interests with people and being able to write about the people and things in my life that I love the most. Writing is so personal yet it is so important to share your writing with people so they know who you are as a writer. I’m someone who doesn’t usually put myself out there, but writing has let me do that in a totally different way. I’ve become more open in my writing since I started, and I’ve been able to share so many personal aspects of my life with so many people by writing every week.