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The Free Press
Ambition Will Only Get You So Far
Ambition Will Only Get You So Far
“I held the misshapen creature in my hand and thought, ‘I’m a flattened frog too, and ambition is leaking out of me,’ ” writes Emily Yoffe. (Mark Peterson/Corbis via Getty Images)
Sitting at my mother’s bedside, getting a glimpse of the abyss, I had my revelation: Professional zeal is a finite resource.
By Emily Yoffe
05.25.25 — Weekend Culture
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The Free Press
The Free Press
Ambition Will Only Get You So Far

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.

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Emily Yoffe

Senior editor Emily Yoffe is a veteran journalist who has published widely on numerous topics. She was a contributing writer to The Atlantic where she wrote about campus sexual assault and MeToo and the need for due process for the accused. She was a longtime contributor to Slate, where she was their "Dear Prudence" columnist for 10 years.

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