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I began to notice it sometime in the last few years. New reporters or interns would arrive at WXIA-TV in Atlanta, meet me, and ask how long I’d been with the station.

“I’m going on nine years.”

Eyes would widen, followed by a six-letter word that was either being used as a question or a comment: “Really …”

I immediately felt the need to defend myself. These days, having reached ten years, I still occasionally get the impulse. But whenever I do, I come back to a fundamental truism of my outlook about my job:

I just want to keep growing.

Weeks like this one remind me how much. On Tuesday, my work received four Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards. I had won Murrows before but never more than one in a given year. These stories reminded me how much I’ve grown since I arrived in Atlanta ten years ago.

I share similar perspective on Episode #70 of the Telling the Story podcast.

This is a non-traditional episode, featuring the reading of a recent blog post instead of a longform interview with a journalist or storyteller. Those episodes will resume soon, but I wanted to use this one to spotlight the growth we all hope to achieve in this industry. I hope you enjoy.

Listen to the podcast at the top of the page or download it and listen to it later. And subscribe to the podcast – and rate and review it – on iTunes and Stitcher!

The Solo Video Journalist is available for purchase. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the publisher’s web site.

Matt Pearl is the author of the Telling the Story blog and podcast. Feel free to comment below or e-mail Matt at matt@tellingthestoryblog.com. You can also follow Matt on Facebook and Twitter.