I call myself an aspiring writer, which recently struck one of my friends as an odd thing to say.  I was already published, he pointed out, numerous times over and in professional-rate magazines, so how was I still an “aspiring” writer? 

To be honest, I’d never given it much thought until he asked.  I’ve always just considered myself an aspiring writer.  Yet when he asked, it suddenly became very clear to me.  I am and will always be an aspiring writer.  Once I admit that I’m not aspiring, then I might lose the drive to get better.  I want every story I write to be better than the one before it. 

I will never be the writer I want to be, because that writer is always better than me.  No matter how many stories I publish, I am an aspiring writer.