This week marked a very special anniversary for me. On October 13, 1999, I celebrated the five-year anniversary of the first time I had an article published. I can’t believe five years have passed since that day. In some cases it seems like yesterday – and in others – it seems like I should be celebrating my 50th anniversary.

I wanted to be a journalist for as long as I can remember: When I was around 11, there was a fire in my neighborhood and I made a newspaper using copy paper and a black magic marker with the fire as the front-page story. My mom took my mock paper to work and copied it for me and I distributed it throughout the neighborhood; and when I was twelve, I was heavily into professional wrestling, so heavily in fact, that I wrote a weekly column about the goings on in wrestling that reached a huge audience – just me. While I did not expect to be a published journalist before I finished puberty, I was just having fun and, unbeknownst to myself, laying the groundwork for what I wanted to be “when I grew up”.

In 1989, when I was old enough to hopefully publish something without the use of a black magic marker or my mom’s copy machine and something that would reach more people then just myself, I decided that I would try to become a journalist. I tried everything: I covered the campaign races, I interviewed various celebrities at conventions, and I even volunteered my services to anyone who needed something written. Although I did not get published or gain any money or exposure during this period – I gained something much more valuable – I honed my networking and communication skills and learned a lot about rejection and perseverance.

Then, five years later in October 1994, I volunteered to cover the campaign of Attorney General Candidate Dennis Vacco. As part of my duties, I tried to get media coverage for the campaign. So I called a well-known Brooklyn weekly and offered to write an article for the paper on Vacco’s campaign free of charge. All I wanted was exposure for the campaign – and my first published article. The editor’s reaction was, through laughter, and before hanging up on me, “nobody cares”. I could have given up there, but I refused to let one editor diffuse my enthusiasm and waste my five years of dedication to my goal, so instead of giving up, I pressed on. I looked through the yellow pages and found that there was a newspaper called The Brooklyn Skyline. Although I never heard of the paper, I figured I would give it a shot. It turns out that they were relatively new and were looking for reporters and after a brief conversation, decided that they wanted to meet with me. After a brief meeting, they asked me if I would be willing to write a few stories each week for them.

And then on October 13, 1994, five years after I started trying, my determination paid off and I got what I hoped for – I got my first article published.

I will never forget that day. At the time, I was working full time as an Accountant at a bank, so I brought a copy of the paper containing my article for everyone. Whether they wanted it or not – whether they cared or not – I gave everyone I saw a copy of the paper until I ran out. I was just so excited that I finally did it. It took me five long years to get that first article published, and even if this first one was the last one, I didn’t care, because what I had set out to do was achieved.

Over the next five years, it was a very long road of hard work, dedication, vigorous networking – and oceans of blood, sweat and tears. The road had many obstacles in it, like backstabbing, false promises, let downs, lies and disappointment – but none of that mattered – because no matter what everyone else threw in my way, I knew that I wanted to be a journalist. So despite all of that, five years since the day that my first article was published, I have gone from a Contributing Reporter, to a Staff Writer, to an Editor, to an Editor-In-Chief, to an Assistant Publisher, to a Press Secretary.

Five years and over 600 stories later, I learned a lot about the newspaper and media industry. More importantly, I also learned a few things that were much more valuable: I learned how to deal with internal politics, I learned how to fight for what you believe in no matter how strong the opposition, and I learned how to keep striving for what you want even when someone tells you you’ll never accomplish anything.

But most importantly, I realized that that you can do anything you want – because if your mind can conceive it, and your heart can believe it…then you can achieve it.