Teenage Dreams of Dragons

Let’s be honest, if you’d told teenage me, curled up in a corner with a stack of comic books and the social skills of a particularly shy hermit, that I’d one day be navigating spreadsheets like a financial wizard, I would have choked on my imaginary dragon breath. My heart belonged to the Oxford comma, my soul sang in sonnets, and my greatest ambition was to craft the next great fantasy epic (still working on that, by the way – dragons are surprisingly complex characters).

The Unexpected Turn to Finance

Back in my school days, I was happiest with the scent of freshly printed newsprint as an associate editor for the school paper. My world revolved around deadlines, layout, and the thrilling power of the written word. Conversations? Well, my mom often joked she could count my daily words on one hand. I was a master of eloquent silence.

From Switchboard to Spreadsheets: My Financial Awakening

So, how did this word-obsessed introvert end up knee-deep in debits and credits? Blame it on the high heels and miniskirts. Yes, you read that right. As a shy kid, I harbored a secret fascination for the seemingly glamorous bank tellers. They were confident, they were stylish, and they handled money. It seemed like a world away from my quiet corner filled with fictional adventures. Plus, let’s face it, the allure of financial stability was hard to ignore. Dragons don’t pay for themselves, you know.

My grand plan to infiltrate the dazzling world of finance started with a less-than-glamorous role: switchboard operator at a bank. Suddenly, the girl who could communicate volumes with a well-placed semicolon was forced to talk. All. Day. Long. It felt like the same repetitive cycle of endless phone calls. My vocal cords staged a silent protest.

Then, a beacon of hope emerged: a bookkeeping position. Less talking? Numbers? My left brain, apparently lurking dormant beneath layers of literary longing, perked up. They say I have a knack for numbers, that my left brain is particularly… well, left-brained. Who knew? It certainly wasn’t the shy kid who preferred the company of fictional characters.

Embracing the Duality: Writer and Finance Manager

And just like that, I fell down the rabbit hole of accounting. The double-entry system, initially as foreign as a complex mathematical equation, slowly started to make a strange kind of sense. It wasn’t quite the same thrill as crafting a perfect paragraph, but there was a certain satisfaction in balancing the books, in making the numbers align. It was a different kind of story, told in columns and rows.

Now, years later, I’m a finance manager. The high heels and miniskirts of my youthful fantasies remain just that – fantasies. My footwear is more sensible these days, and my wardrobe leans towards “comfortable and professional.” But the irony isn’t lost on me. The girl who once measured her days in chapters now measures them in fiscal quarters.

And yet, the writer in me never truly vanished. Just a few days ago, with the enthusiastic nudging of the wonderful ladies of DHR Finance Lily and Xiuping (my original cheerleaders!), I decided to dust off my old diaries and start this blog. It feels like coming full circle, a chance to blend my love for words with the unexpected path my life has taken.

While I still yearn for the tactile pleasure of turning a crisp page – the smell of old paper is practically aromatherapy to me – I can’t deny the efficiency of accounting software. Give me a well-designed spreadsheet over a dusty ledger any day. My inner accountant appreciates the digital age, even if my inner bookworm occasionally sighs wistfully for yellowed paper and the scratch of a pencil.

So here I am, navigating spreadsheets by day, and crafting stories by night (and sometimes during lunch breaks, don’t tell anyone). It’s a strange duality, this love for both storytelling and spreadsheets. But hey, maybe my next fantasy epic will feature a dragon who meticulously manages its stash using double-entry bookkeeping. You never know where life – or a vivid imagination – will take you.

The Fun Doesn’t Stop Here!

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