For someone who once wrote a 5,000-word story on raccoons and an even longer one on lobsters, Charlie Pierce has come a long way.

According to the 1975 School of Journalism alumnus, though, his journey is far from over.

Pierce returned to campus Friday for a brief presentation and question-and-answer session, in which he described how he went from editorial editor for The Marquette Tribune to writer at large for Esquire magazine and writer for The Boston Globe Sunday magazine.

The path, he said, was rarely straight, and hardly the one recommended by the journalism faculty.

"I did not take the route that was suggested by all my professors here," Pierce said. "I kind of stumbled around until I fell into a bunch of stuff."

That "stuff" included stints in alternative media — Worcester (Mass.) Magazine and the Boston Phoenix — as well as positions at the Boston Herald and the now-defunct National Sports Daily.

Pierce, who also has written for GQ magazine, began writing for Esquire in 1997 and joined The Boston Globe in 2002.

"The only plan I had was that I didn't want the plan everyone told me I should have," Pierce said.

Because Pierce "dared to take the path less traveled," said Gary Meyer, associate dean in the College of Communication, he is a good example of how following one's passion can lead to success.

"He took chances," Meyer said, and "for him it worked."

Adding to Pierce's diverse resume is his involvement in radio, which began while he was at the Boston Herald. Pierce said he was asked to appear on a National Public Radio show called Only a Game, and he has participated in the show the past 13 years. He is also a regular panelist on another NPR show called Wait, Wait… Don't Tell Me!

Pierce said he attributes much of his success to "blind luck… and recognizing the opportunity when it's there."

Though he has already achieved much throughout his career, Pierce shows no signs of slowing down and plans to "not stop writing."

"I hope there's always stuff I can do," he said. "I don't feel like I've done the best work I can do yet.

"I think there's always a better story to tell somewhere out there."

One of the stories Pierce wrote recently, in the November issue of Esquire, was about the Creation Museum and the organization behind it, Answers in Genesis.

The article, titled "Greetings from Idiot America," "is about why we don't particularly have a (fondness for) expertise," Pierce said. It was "a sort of tracing of the underground reality-based community… who are not really within the national dialogue, in a lot of cases because they know what they're talking about."

This and other articles display the "kind of fiery intelligence" that makes Pierce such a talented writer, said Mark Warren, the executive editor of Esquire who was worked steadily with Pierce for several years.

"He is so engaged as a passionate observer of and writer on the American experience," said Warren. "Those kinds of writers are rare to come by."