Passion

Passion led us here.

Indeed. If it was not for my passion about languages, especially the English one, I would not be where I am today. For as long as I can remember, the grey matter residing inside my skull was keen on soaking up new and more knowledge. The end of one sentence to me always has just been the precursor of another one. What a coincidence that my alma mater’s maxim is Learn and Live. If I had to outline my adolescent and adult years, that would pretty much be it.

Indeed. If it was not for my passion, I would have given up what for decades had just been a dream. A dream which, at the time, I did not dare follow. A dream I talked myself out of pursuing. Would I succeed? Would studying not just ruin the fun I always had when learning and using the language that I felt so close to? Would it earn me a living?

Learn and Live. I did learn something else back then. I found a profession that fulfills me on most days. I am surrounded by colleagues I not only get along with but who make a fab team.

And yet… …there always was that nagging thought that I was missing out on something. That I was meant to do something with that passion. And since I have learned that you cannot cheat on life, it had its way of reminding me of the promise I made to myself, that “one fine day I will”. And that fine day started in February 2001 with the MA in Translation with The Open University.

Had I known how much fun it was to invest the little free time I had into the theory (and practices!) of translation, I surely would have started that journey much sooner. All things happen for a reason, though, and I guess the timing was just right for me.

Passion led me here. Indeed. I am living the best of both worlds now, combining my main job as an auditor with my freelance job as a translator specializing in finance and legalese. The very same passion I have felt for more than three decades now keeps me going, fills me with joy and still spurs me on to learn and to live.