"Ambition Can't Wait" Is More Than a Catchphrase

When I first arrived on campus back in the fall of 2017, Drexel was beginning to roll out its "Ambition Can't Wait" advertising campaign. It was pretty much everywhere you looked — on flags attached to light poles, on the sides of buses, and even on stickers strewn across various boards in campus buildings. At the time, my first-year friends and I didn't know what to think of the saying because we thought of it as nothing more than public relations talk to convince prospective students to enroll with Drexel University after high school. Yet, something in the back of my mind made me wonder why Drexel was making such an effort to promote this saying where the majority of its audience consisted of current students.

I was an ambitious kid coming to Drexel who was determined to get good grades and please his folks, yet Drexel gave me so many opportunities to enjoy even more out of my time at the University.

The realization would only dawn upon me in my pre-junior year in the winter term of 2020. It was at this time that I learned my job for the upcoming co-op cycle had been cancelled due to the pandemic and I had no plan on what to do. Part of me was so stressed out from the final projects of my classes at the time, another part of me was anxious about no longer having a co-op job, and the last part of me was overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the near future. It took a mental health day...or three...to really grasp hold of what was going on and for the saying to click in my head.

I realized that "Ambition Can't Wait" was Drexel's reminder to its students to be ambitious in what we set out to do. I thought about how I could sit at home and be upset at the thought of losing my job or I could do what I'd been taught to do during my time at Drexel: use my determination to be successful, to succeed today. Through the fast-paced education and balancing a social life with getting good grades and sleep, I taught myself to persevere in the face of adversity. I was an ambitious kid coming to Drexel who was determined to get good grades and please his folks, yet Drexel gave me so many opportunities to enjoy even more out of my time at the University.

Through the connections I made with faculty and peers, I have had the inspiration and motivation to not stand by idly and get bogged down by the pandemic. I've taken full advantage of the spirit to succeed instilled within me, both from my own ambition and that which Drexel has inspired within me, to build a fundraising event and learn new skills which will help me in my future career. "Ambition Can't Wait" was the saying I needed to hear to remind me that my success tomorrow is dependent on my success today. This saying will be with me long after I graduate, reminding me that success is only one decision away.