Evelyn Zhang

One year, it’s the time people expect me to be back to Montreal already. Yet, we are still here, and life gives me a surprising side that I never expected to see and feel. Let’s take it to the first time I moved here. It was August 2018, half crying and half excited, I packed two suit cases and flied to Stockholm to join Syed in the new city. Nobody at home took me seriously, colleagues at work all told me that I will be back again. I loved PSP sooo much, I wanted to stay there forever if I could. It was investment management, it was the best company to work for in finance on the Montreal island.  Stockholm is a beautiful city, I jogged every day around the Lake Mälaren, it was such a nice time break off from work and be able to enjoy life to do something I wished for long time, just do sport everyday, I was conscious that my physics were very weak. Not knowing anyone and anywhere in the new city made me feel lonely. It was the summer when all countries in the world are selling out...

Disney made a movie called Monster Inc. It was about a world of stuffed Monsters who are working in a energy factory, and their way of sustain energy was based on tears and cries from the babies, until, they found a little girl who didn’t take the cry but with gave them laughs at monster’s grimace, and suddenly, the machine starts to bump boosts of energy back to the Monster world again, with more power than tears. It was a smart and funny and meaningful movie, and yet, who would have believed that making people laugh is more powerful as a motivator than making them cry, even in the real world? Finance team in North America, known for it's solid establishment of internal controls and accuracy for financial reporting, didn’t have any numbers in the auditor's scorecard for 6 six years while I was there. At work, there was stressed managers and crying analysts, star or non star performers. I flew 11 hours to the Nordic world, just found out that high accuracy can also be effective...