Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

 

FAR & BEC

Pictured above is the end of my social life. I have a few words to say about that, but first:

One month, thirty days, four weeks. Woo!

When I arrived in Fargo 9 months ago, I was pretty sure of a few things. I was pretty sure that the upcoming 8 months were going to be the longest of my life, BUT I was also pretty sure that my friends and family were going to help me make it the best it could be. Every single day I get closer to the Wednesday I get to leave my hometown, Fargo, the more excited I get even though I’m pretty sure there is no way I could get anymore excited (Mother Nature is even trying to amp up the excitement! Ah, NoDak…). I’m proud of myself for working for it, pushing for it, and for not settling. Looking back, there were so many times where I could have taken the route that was easy and comfortable. I could have the same friends, live in the same place, do the same things, wait for others to knock down my door with opportunities, and continue to pretend to be happy and satisfied with the direction of my life.

BUT, here I am – ready and eager to start fresh with my family supporting me and my ride or die’s by my side to ease me into my new, Jersey lifestyle.

What is the Jersey lifestyle, you ask?

Well, for me it will be studying for the CPA, and then reviewing for the CPA, and then taking the CPA and then repeating that process about 3 more times. GTL: Getting my CPA, Trying to get my CPA, and Literally trying so hard to get my CPA. I’m not planning on working this summer so that I can pour myself into my studies on a full-time basis. The talk around town is that treating it like a full time job is the best way to prepare yourself for success. And, also this:

Passing the CPA                    XXX

 Social Life                                XXX

I’m making a Pinterest board of study tips ‘n stuff to help get me through this long summer of studies, and I came across an article that had a wonderful mantra (and also my post title): Failing to plan is planning to fail. I hope that you love that as much as I do because I’m about ready to get it tattooed on my forearm.

I’ve ordered my review books (REG & AUD are being updated in May and I’ve chosen to delay their shipment so that I’ll have the most up-to-date study material) and I’ve chosen to attend in-class lectures for each section. I’m very fortunate that the firm I’ll be working for is footing the bill for my review material, and that the program that I am using has a variety of study methods to choose from, so that each CPA candidate can choose the method that is the best for them.

The review classes I’ll be taking are at Monmouth University – right next to….the beach! I know that you’re probably not surprised. Before you get all judge-y, those were the classes that worked the best with my schedule. That location just has the added benefit of being extremely close to the beach. On that note, I also want to mention that I have full faith in myself in discovering a way to make beach-study days a norm. It’s actually a longstanding goal of mine to pass my CPA while simultaneously getting tan.

If you’re studying for, have studied, have failed, have passed, have taken the exams X amount of times, I’d love to hear from you! Check out my contact page for more information, or connect with me via insta or twitter.

 

’til next time,

-S

 

 

Take 2

I’m going to dive right in…it’s been 8 months since I’ve written anything.

There were a number of reasons for this; I didn’t feel like writing, I didn’t feel like anything in my life was worth writing about, I didn’t make time for it, I was upset about how bad I was with keeping up with writing, I got some constructive criticism that I took personally when I shouldn’t have, et cetera.

After a lot of thought, I realized a few things. The most important being: I don’t need to be apologetic. When I don’t feel like writing, I don’t have an obligation to write. Relative to others, my life may be slightly less than exciting, but those people don’t have to read about my life. Lastly, constructive criticism is meant to help and I received it because somebody read my blog. At the end of the day, that’s pretty cool and more-or-less my objective, here.

I decided to shift the focus of my writings from “cool summer internship” to things that require more than one summer’s worth of focus so that my blog has a legitimate, on-going purpose. I’m at a stage in my life where everything is in an upheaval – and this time, I’m learning to embrace it instead of shrink back into my comfort zone. I’m graduating college, I’m moving across the country, I’m starting my first career, and I’m about to begin studying for the CPA exam. There definitely has to be a market of crazy change-embracing kids like me, right? Right.

 

Let’s start from square one: Hi, I’m Shea.

What’s been going on?

Glad you asked. In the last 8 months I have made a lot of difficult decisions that have lead to a lot of self discovery. I like to think that I grew a lot as a person this last summer + school year, and in not so many words I’m in no way, shape, or form the same person I was when I first left my home town of Fargs (Fargo). I learned to take risks, try new things, and most importantly, to stand up for myself. I don’t feel the way I used to, I don’t think the way I used to, I don’t run with the same crowd I used to; I’m just not who I used to be. I kind of had to start over. Despite the fact that these changes produced a lot of downtime and lonely nights in these last 8 months, I firmly believe these changes were the best thing I have ever done for myself. It has really helped me focus on what I wanted to accomplish with my time left in Fargs, and prepare for the next step ‘n stuff.

So now what?

In slightly less than six weeks, I will be relocating to New Jersey to start the next part of my life. I’ve accepted a job offer with an amazing accounting firm starting in September. Why move now? I have to take this super dreadful exam to become a CPA, and my review classes are set to start right away. I’m not going to pretend like it’s going to be anything other than scary, difficult, tear-producing, etc., BUT I did make a promise to myself to quit saying “when I don’t pass” or “when I have to retake each part six times” because well, that’s not really positive. Also, while the whole CPA thing was the bulk of my decision to move sooner rather than later, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have anything to do with me missing my friends and the dirty Jerz.

I’m still working on maintenance pieces, so you’re patience is appreciated while I nit-pick over colors and layouts and fonts and blah blah blah etc. etc. etc.

 

-S