Alphabet Soup

I can’t carry on a conversation with music playing or the TV on since the sounds pull my attention away from anything being said. I think I must be ADD, though never formally diagnosed. When I suggested this condition to my husband, he called me a bowl of alphabet soup. George’s analogy prompted me to think through the many letters associated with my name, and I found that I might, indeed, be a bit soupy.

There’s the BS, my college degree. Then I earned the CPA designation, which involved membership in the AICPA. I was employed for ten years by the IRS, for which I worked as an IRA. I should mention my diagnosis of OCD, which, fortunately, is an asset for a CPA.

God used the PCOS and RA I developed as a teen to change my life by making it impossible to follow my expected career path. The CFS I contracted in my thirties prompted me to study and earn an ND in order to maintain my health naturally. But even being an ND didn’t keep me from developing DCIS.

That’s a lot of letters, and they’re just the ones I remember. While they do describe parts of my journey, they don’t define me, so I thought about what letters do.

The truth is that for over sixty years, I have remained a COG, a Child of God. This status is not normally expressed as an acronym, but it is, quite simply, who I am and the most important part of my alphabet.

On a lighter note, my daughter recently texted that her four-year-old, Hannah, reminds her of me: very OCD and crazy about books and stories. Of course, when she typed OCD, her cell phone tried to auto-correct to OLD. It’s convenient that both of those terms describe me well.

 

For those who don’t know what the letters mean:

ADD- Attention Deficit Disorder

BS- Bachelor of Science

CPA- Certified Public Accountant

AICPA- America Institute of Certified Public Accountants

OCD- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

IRS- Internal Revenue Service

IRA- Internal Revenue Agent

PCOS- Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

RA- Rheumatoid Arthritis

CFS- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

ND- Doctor of Naturopathy

DCIS- Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (breast cancer)

COG- Child of God