Ambitions Are All in How We Perceive Them

At the recent college reunion, my old dorm-mate, Ken, said one thing to me that stood out: “I had bigger ambitions for my career.”

Ken works for a small daily newspaper in Arizona. He has written a few big stories and won a few state awards for his reporting. Nonetheless, he feels a hollow sense of accomplishment in his career. Ken also says that things at his sheet aren’t looking good and he fears the future.

To me it is a shame to fear the future. I’ve been there but not at this point in my life.

I face an uncertain future even now but not with fear.

Certainly, my journalism career didn't end up as I had hoped while still a starry eyed college student. Quite a number of my college classmates went on to very illustrious careers with some major publications. Yet, there were many like Ken and me who never got close to our lofty ambitions.

I started my career after college at a small weekly newspaper with a news staff of two. We did everything – the reporting, writing, photography, editing, layout and even paste-up.

A few months later I landed a job at a small daily newspaper in Orange County, CA. Before six months had passed I had the flagship beat and held it for a few years.

My city editor, Stan, was extremely old school – he had worked for the Los Angeles Hearld Examiner when William Randolph Hearst was still alive and kept his hand on things at his publications. He held us mesmerized with his stories of those old days in journalism.

I feel privileged that he was my first city editor and remember him fondly.