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Uncomplicated Ambition
How chronic illness has helped me embrace my own definition of ambition.
Like you, the turning of the page to a new year has me thinking about my goals and plans for the next 12 months. But this train of thought also leads me to contemplate ambition and the place it has in my life.
The conflicted relationship I have had with the word “ambition” is wholly influenced by my belief system, but also my health status in the last two years. It has triggered a host of latent insecurities, as well as a defiant commitment to honor how ambition actually feels — and how I want it to feel.
It wasn’t until recently that I understood what this truly meant.
Ambition is a beautiful word
I grew up with a very uncomplicated understanding of ambition. As an adult, I understand how contentious the word can be, particularly for women, but I had no sense of that in my adolescence.
The word itself is beautiful and proud. According to Dictionary.com, ambition is “a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.” There is nothing remotely negative or gendered in that definition. If anything, it is an honorable meaning.
As I imagine is the case in most immigrant families, ambition was never a choice. Starting with…
