The Accounting of Loss: When Dreams Don't Balance
Have you ever had to explain to a child why their dreams might take longer than expected? As someone who balances books for a living, I recently faced my toughest reconciliation: helping my daughters understand why history's ledger sometimes takes time to balance.
The Audit of Ambition
Five years ago, my daughter declared during her first election debate viewing that she would become president. Her sister, hedging her bets between a singing career (despite being delightfully tone-deaf) and political office, joined in this dream. In Kamala Harris, they found their proof of concept – a template that made their aspirations feel less like wishful thinking and more like a business plan in motion.
When the Numbers Don't Add Up
As an accountant, I live in a world where everything must balance. But watching Harris's campaign end last Wednesday, I confronted a different kind of deficit. The maternal accountant in me struggled to reconcile two conflicting entries:
DEBIT: Stock market and crypto gains lighting up my financial coffins
CREDIT: The weight in my chest as a Black woman, feminist, and Haitian immigrant
In audit terms, this was what we call a material loss. Like Kamala, I know the hidden costs of being the "first" or "only" in a room. My personal P&L includes:
Extra hours invested in proving competence
The mental energy spent on calculating every word in meetings
Maintaining a professional smile (Note: Natural RBF makes this a significant depreciation expense)
Intangible Assets
But some valuations can't be recorded in traditional ledgers:
My 10-year-old practicing "Madam President" in the mirror
Her "Future President" drawings are proudly displayed on our fridge
The spark in her eyes when she declared herself an education activist
Lessons Learned: A Different Kind of Reconciliation
I have to keep reminding myself that:
Progress doesn't follow standard accounting principles
Each "no" is simply a deferred "yes" with accumulated interest
Resilience is our highest-yielding investment
Dreams, like compound interest, grow exponentially across generations
While my worksheets demand perfect balance, progress rarely follows neat equations. As I told my daughters, we are the descendants of resilience – from slavery to Haitian independence to immigration. Each challenge is simply another entry in our generational ledger of persistence.
Remember: Some balance sheets carry dreams too big for a single reporting period. Keep calculating, keep pushing, keep believing, keep marching, and keep dreaming.
This post is dedicated to all the "firsts" still waiting in the wings and to my future president, who asked, "Will they be ready for me if they were not ready for her?" My answer to her was:
#election #ProfessionalGrowth #Leadership #RepresentationMatters #president #DiversityInLeadership #cpa #thebalancedsheet
