Time & Perspective Quote by Bob Schieffer

Schieffer’s humor lands because it’s aimed at the myth of the “destined” career path. He frames his early college drift in plain, almost embarrassed terms: two years spent discovering the obvious, that lyrical talent won’t rescue you from biology exams. The joke isn’t just self-deprecation; it’s a quiet jab at the institutional promise that passion alone can carry you. Reality, in this version, is a scantron sheet.

The pivot to journalism reads less like a calling and more like an act of pragmatic self-preservation. That matters. It casts journalism as a craft chosen for its fit with a person’s actual strengths, not a romantic vocation. In an era when media careers get narrated as glamorous or fated, Schieffer gives you the unvarnished origin story: he didn’t “follow his truth,” he followed the evidence.

The line about not graduating with honors, but graduating on time, completes the portrait. It signals a values system: steadiness over sparkle, competence over laurels. “With some doing” (awkwardly phrased, almost as if he’s brushing past it) hints at work ethic without chest-thumping. Subtext: the credential isn’t the point; the habit of showing up is.

Contextually, coming from a journalist who built credibility over decades, the anecdote becomes a backdoor argument for the profession itself: journalism isn’t for the mythic genius, it’s for the observant generalist who can admit what isn’t working, switch gears, and keep filing.