Hajime

Today is my first day of work at EY and it is the beginning of a new season of my life. For the past 10 years or so, I have worked towards my goal of being an accountant and am thankful for all the blessings I received in my life that got here today.

Over the past few months, certain events and experiences have also made me question what I want in my life. Admittedly, for the longest time, the goal of being an accountant was towards a career where I earn a decent income. Although it would be nice to make so much that I have to trouble my head over what to do with it all, I can also get by with much less, and hence I was just looking forward to having the ability to acquire things in my life that I want which I thought would provide me the fulfilment I was looking for.

Evaluating this perspective, I considered that I could be rather mistaken. Academic research and my own experiences have shown me that such satisfaction could only be temporal. It's interesting, and very tragic to see how fast we can get over the feeling of joy and satisfied longing so quickly after obtaining something.

What then, should my goal in life be? Should I chase experiences? I had a wonderful time travelling since my exams ended. Over the past 2 months since my exams ended I have been to Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Cambodia. It's funny how I used to think travelling is little but a real drag. It has really taught me a lot of things; how systems so different from ours here can still be entirely functional; a greater appreciation for cultures other than our own (which was never much to brag about in the first place); the ability to communicate using language etc.

What exactly do I want? I don't know, and I would like to find out. Something more concrete - I enjoyed the first day of training at EY, I'm happy how the firm thinks about how to make things better and come up with new ways of doing things. It makes me think about the position I want to be at next time, and whether I would be able to think of things like that and put it through with action. That's a still long way off and for now I should just focus on being extremely good at my craft.

Gotta keep my head up.