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Numbers just didn't add up

I could have been an accountant instead of a writer. Numbers were a natural for me, and so I wasn’t surprised when a college teacher tried to convince me to consider other careers where English was not a “required skill.”
To be fair, I had just arrived from Mexico a couple years before and my English skills, written and spoken, were “un desastre.”
Math was my strength since my secundaria years in Cuernavaca, Mexico. I even won second place in the school’s math contest one year.
My father had sent me to private English classes, but I often ditched class. When I arrived to United States, I spent nearly a whole year cheating from my sister’s English homework.
Life was great until my sister decided to hide her cuadernos from me. But something funny happened during my senior year.
My language arts teacher, the daughter of French immigrants and a Boston native, somehow discovered that deep down inside, I had a talent for writing.
Despite my limited English, I had read “Siddartha” by Hermann Hesse and written a report for my class assignment. The book was a difficult read, even for English-native speakers.
Yet, it wasn’t really my writing that impressed her, but my understanding of the book and the complexity of its characters.
She then encouraged me to write for the school newspaper — I submitted a small piece written mainly in Spanish, later translated to English by another student.
As a result, other teachers encouraged me to apply for a scholarship from the American Society of Newspaper Editors. I did, and to my surprise, I was one of 60 students chosen from a pool of nearly 700 applicants from all over the country.
I must admit that I hadn’t seriously considered becoming a journalist, but numbers — in this case, dollar figures — made me feel guilty. I felt that if ASNE had trusted me with their money, I couldn’t disappoint them.
I knew the easiest thing would have been to go into a career where numbers and logic rule, but I decided to stick with journalism. I received a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Fresno State in 1995. Since then, I have worked as a reporter for a bilingual publication of the Fresno Bee, The Bakersfield Californian and now for MÁS. I’m also the editor of The Northwest Voice newspaper.
As most writers know, there isn’t a mathematical formula in writing.
Every time I sit in front of my computer to write a story, it’s a new challenge.
The challenge comes from writing compelling, thought-provoking stories about your life, our culture and dreams.
I hope I have been able to provide that for MÁS readers.