Last week we were reminded by one of our professors of the passion we all felt, at some point, for the printed word. He said that in the midst of deadlines and reading and writing, it's easy to forget that we actually like reading and writing. Then he handed out Orhan Pamuk's acceptance speech for the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.

There's something in there that I thought was worth posting. Here, Pamuk contemplates on why he writes:

"I write because I have an innate need to write! I write because I can't do normal work like other people. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at all of you, angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can only partake in real life by changing it . . . I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and the interest that writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so very, very angry at all of you, so very, very angry at everyone. I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page, I want to finish it . . . I write because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy."

I revised my New Year's resolution to periodically remind myself of this (as cheesy as this sounds). And committed to, at some point in my career, aim for that one story that will change the world. The one that made us all want to be journalists in the first place.