They say that there is one moment in everyone’s life when they know that they have reached their summit. When they realize that the years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears they have shed their whole life has finally paid off. When they know that they have "made it". My moment came on Monday, when I joined The Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

I have always wanted to be a journalist. For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by news, its power and its effect on the world. While most children watch cartoons, my program of choice growing up was ABC News with Roger Grimsby. I loved the way he came on television every day and told the world what was going on around the world. I was amazed at how the most prominent and powerful people in the world would sit down with him and answer his questions, whether or not they were complimentary. I gained a tremendous amount of respect for him because when the world wanted to know what was going on, they turned to him. It was then that I realized that I wanted to be a journalist – and have the world turn to me.

From as early as high school, I tried to "break in" to journalism. In my senior year, I signed up for an internship at a radio station in New York. Although not a newspaper, the internship taught me a lot about broadcasting, dealing with the public and, most importantly, internal corporate politics. But, nonetheless, it was my first step in my long climb towards my summit – a summit that took ten years to reach.

Throughout those ten years, I knew that in order to reach the top, I had to give 110% of myself to this business. So I did. I attended meeting after meeting, getting to know the "movers and shakers" of Brooklyn. Despite the fact that I was never published and had no actual journalism experience, I carried myself as if I did, and not more than a few months later I scored my first interview with some candidate for mayor, I keep forgetting his name, oh yeah – Rudy Giuliani.

That was the day I had my first taste of what being a journalist was like. What Roger Grimsby felt like, because now, someone took the time to sit down with me and talk to me. Right then and there, I knew I was in the right place.

It wasn’t until nearly five years later that I was published. But throughout those five years, I worked. I went everywhere doing everything a "newsman" would do. Sure there were times I wanted to give up, because I had been at it so long and not been published, but I decided to stick it out – and keep climbing.

After five years of climbing, I got my first article published on October 13, 1994. Looking back, I can remember my reaction when I saw those three words I had been dying to see since I started this journey: "By Paul Wein". I recall giving everyone I knew – and everyone I didn't know – a copy of the story. That day, I knew that the agony of my climb was worth it – because the summit was reachable.

For the next nine months, I free-lanced for that paper and got published in two more. "It's happening." I told myself. "I am becoming a journalist. Roger Grimsby would be proud."

It was after a year of free-lancing when I took a break from climbing and took my first rest. I was hired as editor of the news department at a major Brooklyn paper. "Editor?" I asked myself. "Yeah, Editor." I answered proudly. I had reached a plateau and was able to rest, but I knew my climb was not yet over.

I spent a year at that paper until I decided to start climbing again. My second rest came as editor-in-chief of another Brooklyn newspaper, this one, brand new. It was a phenomenal and educational experience to start a newspaper from scratch and to watch it grow. After another year of rest, I wasn't thinking of climbing, this time, someone reached out their hand to help me climb – I took it.

Now, ten years later, I am with a newspaper that has over 150 years of back issues under its belt. I am with a newspaper that was, at one time, the nation’s largest hometown circulated newspaper. I am with a paper that had poet Walt Whitman as the editor-in-chief, a paper that the world turned to during the Second World War to see what hometown boy became this week’s hero. A paper that everyone's father, grandfather or great grandfather delivered. I am at The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. This is my moment. I have reached my summit.

The view is great from up here.