Day 17: Job

I'm grateful for the fact that I'm employed and that I am able to pay all of my bills on my own. At times it's hard, but it has taught me great responsibility and I've learned how to budget consistently and really decide what my "needs" and "wants" are. The economy tanked while I was finishing my last year of college, so I was not able to see how bad it was affecting people but I can tell you the first tax season I returned to work (January 2009), it was depressing to hear clients tell me how they were going to lose their house or file for bankruptcy because they were way in over their heads. A lot of clients had been laid off because their companies couldn't afford them anymore. People had taken huge chunks of money out of their 401k's or borrowed money from credit cards or moved in with family in order to survive. Here I was, a college graduate, ready to make some money and all I could think about was whether or not I would have a job within a year. Bad time to graduate!

I have mixed emotions about my job. It is the only job I have ever had. I started working for my boss when I was 17 years old. I had a half day the second semester of my Senior year in high school and was hired for tax season help only and I got to work at 12:30 pm everyday. After tax season ended, I was offered a receptionist position and was asked to stay. I stayed because I didn't want to go job hunting as I had applied to 20+ different places before I landed this job and one of the reasons I was hired was because my Aunt Lena worked there at the time, so she put in a good word for me.

Over the years, I have been given great responsibility, which I feel I've handled well. I was forced to learn things on my own and manage the office at a very young age. My Aunt Lena left not even 2 years after I started working there and I pretty much took over her responsibilities. I was more of a personal assistant than anything else and I became very close with my boss's family. If I wasn't working, I was at his house hanging out with him, his wife, and their kids. For the next 5 years, ALL I DID WAS WORK. I worked nonstop and really had no social life, ESPECIALLY during tax season, plus I was going to school full time. Money motivates me, and I think my boss knew that, so I really didn't care how much overtime I worked. Plus I enjoyed working. I was told many times by my family and friends that I was a "work-a-holic" but I didn't care. It was my choice to work.

My boss encouraged me to attend one of the BYU schools to finish my education. I never wanted to go to BYU, but applied anyway. I only applied to BYU Provo and BYU Hawaii. Provo denied me, but Hawaii accepted me!! I will never forget opening my acceptance letter at Kelly's 21st birthday sitting in a booth at Texas Roadhouse. My family was thrilled and reality set in for me. I was going to leave my family, my friends, my job, everything I had ever known for the next 20 months just to finish school. And this school was 3,000+ miles away from home on an island in the middle of nowhere. It's not like I could just jump in a car and drive home for the weekend or hop on a plane whenever I wanted to. I only knew 2 people on the entire island and they were both students at BYU Hawaii; Brian Golladay, my boss's son, and Jordan Flake who was in my home ward for a few months before heading straight for BYU Hawaii after returning home from his mission. Neither of them befriended me and it took about 4 months before I made friends. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but I'm glad I went. BYU Hawaii ended up being one of the best things I ever did and I'm glad I graduated from there.

After school, I returned to work for my boss in January of 2009 and currently work there now. January 28, 2011, I will have known my boss for 9 years and have worked for him for 7 years if you take away the 2 years I left to finish college. Crazy how time flies. I am officially an accountant and tax preparer. I mainly prepare income taxes and have mastered dealing with the IRS on behalf of clients. I've been blessed with the opportunity to travel to Brazil for work and have visited Brazil three times this year alone on top of seeing clients in Houston and Miami. Not very many people my age can say they travel alone, first class, to a foreign country and get in a taxi all by themselves speaking what Portuguese they know!!!

Tax season starts in 3 weeks. I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with tax season. I'm excited, but not. Lets hope it's a smooth tax season and nothing goes wrong. Only 12 weeks of craziness and then life is normal again. BRING. IT. ON.!!!