Reminiscing April 15: The Deadliest Line

April 15 of last year, I was facing my laptop at work and had not yet taken a bath til 11AM. I was at the office and Clients keep coming to pick up financial statements and tax returns due to be filed every friggin April 15th of the year.  I was hopeless, hungry, itchy, stressed and exhausted. I couldn't even leave my seat because of filed up workload and tax return preparations of my remaining my Clients.

Photo credit to blog.turbotax.intuit.com

Now, I am here facing a desktop, having my own time at my new office as a Senior Financial Reporting Analyst writing this post because the spirit of April 15 keeps haunting me. I've been in audit for three years , in short my April 15 has been stolen from me for the past 3 years. I am currently not in a mood to work so I am writing an article to document how I feel about having my April 15 free again.

My area of disaster

During my first busy season , I can only imagine how lost I felt if it weren't for those prior year work papers and my teammates' teachings.  Throughout the long days and nights filled with caffeine and a unhealthy food, me and my team learned more of accounting standards, audit methodologies, tax regulations, reporting requirements and a little bit about each other.  April 15 for us is always full of long hours, dizzying excel work papers, tax returns, financial statements edits,  and a longing for a good night’s sleep.  After a year I was promoted as Experience Junior, and  I felt like my team relied on me and I relied on them as well.  I was pressured and worked so hard during my second busy season.  I continue to soak up as much knowledge as I can. I thought it would be the last April 15 that I will see myself exhausted and working as if there's no tomorrow. But it wasn't. I was promoted to being an Audit Semi Senior and decided to stay and challenge myself for another busy season, another April 15 to look forward to.

My Areamates

At last my last April 15 in audit came. We were called the first year In Charges during last year's April 15 busy season. Most of whom have been through busy season many times, could relate to how I felt and connect with my prolonged unfulfilled desire to get outside this situation.  However, over my short 24 years of life, and through busy season, I have learned that experiences and people come into our lives for a reason, and that we need to take advantage of that reason. I have realized that there is so much to be gained from the experiences and from people around us.

Today I am glad that I am no longer experiencing what I had experience last April 15. I had an awesome breakfast at home with my family, had enough sleep, and sitting right now in my desk trying to share my thoughts in my blog. But it seems like something is missing. I feel incomplete and unproductive. I still have friends in audit.  I chatted one of them early this morning but she seemed very busy and was not able to reply.  I also had a group conversation with some ex-office mates in audit who like me, already resigned from auditing firm and landed jobs from other fields. I took solace in knowing that I was not the only one missing the hectic, full of panic and enfeebling spirit of April 15. Missing the hype of those days does not mean you want to experience it again. It was just a reminder of where you were before and how far you've gone from there. In just a short discussion with my ex office mates I had gone from looking outside feeling glad knowing that deep down we all felt the same way.