When I was 13 I ran for the school office of bookkeeper. I was unopposed, and I only ran at the suggestion of some teacher or counselor; she told me the job needed doing and she said I was capable.

I went to junior high school then, and it was a junior high in every sense of the word. We had teams and cheerleaders and dances and other functions just like the high school kids, only smaller. Our games were always during daytime, but we had colors and a mascot and we sold popcorn. Someone had to maintain the records for those popcorn sales.

We also had a little store. It was just a window actually, and it only slid open for a short time each day, but we sold pencils and small notebooks through it: commercial activities requiring records.

I got drafted to help with sales that spring. I did well counting and accounting for the money. In order to be in charge of that position, I needed to run for school bookkeeper for the following year. So I did.

Of course I won. I told you I was unopposed. I don’t remember even making a poster. I still have the lapel pin that says I held the office.

The job wasn’t difficult. The biggest thing I learned was to make all the currency face the same way. I notice the tellers in banks no longer do that. I also read (yesterday) that our currency is contaminated with Bisphenol A (BPA), so we should handle it as little as possible. It really is filthy lucre. Let it face whatever way it happens to be.

There’s nothing sexy or exciting about bookkeeping. It’s not creative like writing. It’s satisfying when it works and a detective job when it doesn’t, but it’s not exotic.

And sometimes it feels like my destiny. Good with numbers. Jewish. Both parents had math aptitude. Mom’s brothers were accountants. Capricorn. Junior High bookkeeper.

My doom.