Saturday 14 June 2014

I'm a true artist with the soul of an accountant

Sometimes I wonder if I missed my true calling.

Sure I like being a writer. I like to think that I'm a creative kind of person, able to reel off amazing ideas at the drop of a hat. I like to see myself as an artist, creating something with some kind of lasting worth, even with a kind of beauty in its own way.

But there's another side to me entirely. A side that is orderly and organised. That's the side of me that is constantly compiling lists and planning out my day in ridiculously intricate detail. It's also the side that loves playing with numbers. I love doing the numerical problems in newspapers, and often find myself doing little mental calculations in my head for no apparent reason except that I think it's kind of fun.

When I think about that organised, numerical side to me, I wonder if I really was meant to follow my creative urges. Maybe my true path lay in a more organised, orderly and numerical sort of profession. Maybe I really should have been (gasp) an accountant?

I seem to have the perfect personality and temperament for it. And hey, it's damn good money. Why did I ever push myself in such an opposing direction?

But when I start to think about it a bit more, and I look more closely at what accountants do, I think, "No way." Not to put it down or anything. I can see that what they do is very important. Hey, maybe I'll even be a position where one day I'll need to employ one (I can only dream). But it's definitely not for me.

I think I'll stick to the creativity and the writing, even if I don't have a lot to show for it. I'll be happy to be a true artist, but one with the soul of an accountant deep down inside. And if that makes me strange or unique, I suppose I can live with that.

1 comment:

  1. I’m the same. I love order. I love sets of things and columns that balance. I used to think I’d enjoy being an accountant until I got seconded to our firm’s accounts department for a year and although there was a lot about it I did like on the whole I found I wasn’t suited because things almost never added up the way they were supposed to. And I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out why. Well I could and did and the problem was always other people. That’s why I like being a writer because there are no other people. I can work as part of a team but I much prefer being in charge of the whole process from beginning to end.

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