Like searching for love, ambition is best expressed by finding the right object of desire. I discovered what I wanted to do in the world from a high school journalism class. I was taking it at the suggestion of my middle school English teacher, who said I needed help because my writing was a mess.
Each week our journalism teacher made us do a different exercise, such as write a profile or cover a news event. When our exercise was to write a review, I went to see the tragic movie Love Story, a blockbuster that provoked mass sobbing throughout the theater.
I turned in a scathing critique, and unbeknownst to me, my teacher submitted it to the school newspaper, which ran it. On the day of publication, classmates came up to me to say things like, “You’re terrible!” or, “I can’t believe how mean you are!” And with that, I realized I had found my profession.