Birdie McFly? Who is that?

Hi, I’m Marti, an Accounting Technology student at Linn-Benton who is bursting with ideas but lacking the resources to accomplish them all.  You may be wondering why I chose to name my blog under the alias Birdie McFly.  Well, McFly is obviously because of the Back to the Future films.  Growing up in the 80’s and having a boy’s name, but being a girl, the nickname fit perfectly for the typical playground harassment used at the time.  Thankfully, McFly was one of the more benign. 

Birdie is more personal and memorable.  I have sisters who are a decade or more younger than myself and one of them struggled to say my name.  Instead, she chose to call me Birdie. 

One of my favorite movie quotes is from You’ve Got Mail.  Birdie Conrad, the bookkeeper, attempts to hearten the defeated main character:

 “You are daring to imagine that you could have a different life. Oh, I know it doesn't feel like that. You feel like a big fat failure now. But you're not. You are marching into the unknown armed with...nothing!” 

And that is exactly how I felt and what I did seven years ago when I moved to Oregon.  How ironic that I am now pursuing accounting!

When I am not doing school, working as an accountant, or chauffeuring/counseling/cheerleading my children, I am digging in the dirt, planting my nose in books about regenerative farming and soil health, and scheming ways to play with flowers.  I find that I feel most alive and connected to the world around me when I am gardening and sharing the beauty of what I’ve grown.  I would love to make it my full-time career.  Someday.

An area that holds me back from this dream the most is my abject fear of marketing.  I have little understanding of how it really works and too strong a repulsion to selling others something they don’t want or apparently need.  Marketing often feels like a mysterious gifting that you either have, or don’t have; and I often feel like I just don’t have it.  Hopefully, by the end of this course (maybe sooner?), I will be better informed and properly equipped to tackle this important aspect of business and life.