Go FIGURE!

On to the third week since I returned from the first residential segment of my studies, I find myself sleeping well again and no longer suffering the effects of jet lag eventhough I was only a hop, skip and a throw away in Singapore.

Last week, the 10kg FedEx box arrived at my home. I gulped, realizing the next three courses' reading materials have arrived, and I was still procrastinating on the final post-module assignment for Economics. When I opened up the box, I found two very thick textbooks on Financial Accounting and Statistical Analysis. I swallowed hard. I got to the bottom of the box, and out came a third file, thankfully half the thickness of the first two on Marketing Management ... a sigh of relief ... but oh, the nervous energy is welling up once again.

Within this season of new adventures lies many hurdles I need to overcome. Among them, the fear of figures.

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Dinner was a pleasant evening with the usual family chats at a quiet coffee shop in our neighborhood. I enjoyed the conversations and laughter with Mom and Dad. Among the topics discussed was my seeming fear of numbers and having to understand them.

Dad jokes.

In a coffee session with his equally successful friends, a Partner of an accounting firm said he enjoyed observing his employees.

They would come to work in the morning
Sit down, take out the figures and undress them
They would look at figures and even stare at them
And eventually go to sleep with the figures.

What an interesting way of making a usually boring profession exciting. I hope I would be able to see Financial Accounting and Statistical Analysis the same way. These courses, of course, exuberate such opposite energies from the dynamic movement, colors, and sounds that I have grown up with at the ballet school, the creative arts education, or the everyday vibrance of a PR/Marketer's life.

Contrary to how accountants view figures, my thoughts are quite the opposite at this point in time as I think about the preparation required for the next session of suffering (oops, I meant "studying"!)

LOS ANGELES, You are not only thousands of miles away
It would take me a whole day and more just to be with you
I am to climb many mountains, endure numerous valleys
Soar the skies, cross the oceans just to be with you.

If that were not enough, it would take all that I've got
All my money, every waking hour, every drop of life
Just to figure out the figures
Before I cross the oceans to be with you, Los Angeles

You did say "I will never leave you or abandon you"
So tell me then, where are you - disguised as the chartered accountant
To help me figure out the figures?
Before I cross the oceans to be with her, Los Angeles.