Personal Narrative: Discovering a Box

I joined the ODYSSEY Media Group at the beginning of my freshman year because of a love of words. I had spent my childhood surrounded by books, each story a chance to escape into someone else’s head temporarily.

 

Discovering writing had felt like finding a box in the back of my closet, something that had always been there, but I had always struggled to lift, too scared of stepping out of my comfort zone and the form of storytelling I was familiar with. 

 

But, it wasn’t until ODYSSEY that I learned how many forms those words could take and how much value that box actually held. 

 

I spent my year in Journalism I, ODYSSEY’s introductory class, tentatively finding one new item after another, each one somehow more anxiety-inducing than the last. I loved writing and took as many opportunities as I could to engage with it, but each new interview, photo and broadcast assignment came with fear that caused me to almost throw the entire box away. 

 

But, I stuck with it. I went to the interviews, filmed the videos and slowly became strong enough to drag the box out of the depths of the back corner. 

 

And then I was made Webmaster at the beginning of my sophomore year, tasked with managing the website and the three-person Digital staff, and the box in my hands suddenly became a lot heavier with items I didn’t quite know what to do with. It wasn’t just the all too familiar pile of multimedia pieces and interviews, but coding and leadership, too. 

 

I embraced the same philosophy I had in JI: hard work to overcome the discomfort. 

 

I learned the code, held the weekly staff meetings and managed the production of multimedia packages. Yet, it didn’t quite work this time. Instead of feelings of excitement as I took on new tasks and responsibilities I had experienced in JI, I was met with burnout. 

 

I eventually talked with my adviser and I was moved into the position of Digital Editor, where I was able to move some items but also pass some along to one of my staffers, who was able to take on part of my old job with some training. By doing this, I was able to make the box just a little bit lighter. 

 

With the help of 2024-25 Editor-in-Chief Wyatt Meyer and Senior Copy Editor Miles Lawrence, I learned how to manage the big problems: staffers who wouldn’t listen, to-do lists that grew by the day, my own struggles with confidence. 

 

It wasn’t until the second week of school my junior year that I realized I was finally doing it. Now the Digital Editor-in-Chief,  I was holding my weight without crumbling under the pressure. 

 

I spent the week managing the New Teacher Package, a compilation of photos and captions on new teachers in the building that had made me drop the box on my foot the year before. I had learned to be explicitly clear with the other staffers working on it about what I needed from them, but also how to have those conversations while not letting them hold me back from my own work. I was barely in the classroom that week, either having conversations in the hallway my past self was scared of or out in the building, doing possibly more interviews than I had done in such a short time period. 

 

The momentum of that week is something I’ve tried to carry throughout the rest of the year, unpacking the box little by little. There have been challenges of course: Failed codes. A staffer who wouldn’t listen. A bad interview. To-do lists that seemed never ending. Stories I wanted to write but couldn’t justify the time for. 

 

And somehow along the way, I’ve learned to manage it and celebrate the accomplishments rather than get caught up in all the failed attempts. 

 

What started out as a love for words has turned into a love for storytelling in multiple forms.

 

I can’t wait to see what the next box holds.