I Passed!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I PASSED the CPA exam! I'm so excited and relieved. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I have so much time now! No more studying hanging over my head.

I would like to thank Google for this great image of what an accountant looks like:

Accountants can be cool, I worked with some pretty fun people in Orlando, so there. :)

Anyway, I realized the other day that passing this exam is literally the hardest, biggest thing I've accomplished in my life. It didn't come easily or naturally to me, and I stuck with it until I made it happen. (I would also like to seriously thank the Lord Jesus - because I did not sleep the night before this last exam due to a huge thunderstorm, and I told God that all credit was due to Him if I passed - I was not in a good state of mind!)

Things have always come pretty easily for me. I always made good enough grades in school without studying too hard; I did study, but probably not as much as I should have. I've run several half marathons, and a few years ago I wanted to run a full marathon, just to say I could do it. I didn't train sufficiently, but I made it happen anyway - that was hard, but only for 5 hours. 

This CPA exam thing was on a whole different level, and lasted for 3 years, starting in the Fall of 2009. For 2 years, I took exams and didn't pass them, and I didn't understand what it would take. Then, last summer, my sweet husband suggested that if I didn't pass the next one, maybe I should take a break from the test. For some reason this was the motivation I needed! I knew I was smart enough, and I knew I could pass. By some miracle, I passed that section by 1 point! I realized that it was the hardest I had ever studied for one part, and I only passed by one point, so I better step it up for the next section! The next one I passed with room to spare, and then went on to pass the next two. Once I set my mind to it in July of 2011, it took me one year and one try on each part to pass. I wish I had just set my mind to it back in 2009! But I guarantee you I know that information better than someone who passed the first time - I've studied it for three years!

It feels really good to have worked at something for so long, and to have set a goal and accomplish it. I am notorious for starting things and not finishing them. Or for coming up with great ideas that I want to start, and never even starting. For example: 

It was such a great feeling to set a goal, work hard at it, and see it fulfilled. Now I'm full of ideas of all kinds of goals I want to set for myself! I'm trying to pick just one or two that I can be serious about and actually accomplish (hopefully with a shorter time frame than 3 years).