What an intense journey it has been. I feel compelled to share it with you all; put in the effort and you will succeed!
June 2016 – Graduate from college (quarter system, not semester system so I was relatively late in the game) and send in a rushed transcript to the CBA and pray to God that they process it in time for my start date at the new job. Study blindly for FAR (without a test date, or even knowing for sure that my transcript would clear) for two months. Most people I know go on fancy European or Asian backpacking trips to celebrate graduation, so I felt if the CBA screwed up or I failed, it would all have been for nothing. CBA took 8 weeks to process my app, and I managed to slot FAR a few days before moving into my new apartment and starting my new job.
Sept 2016 – Started work in audit at a Big 4 in San Francisco, CA. Set my sights on taking 2 more tests before the April 2017 exam change (taking into consideration busy season,) with hopes of passing one.
Oct 2016 – Took AUD the Monday after Halloween weekend. San Francisco was pretty lit that weekend but I was busy memorizing differences between issuer and non-issuer audit reports. Here I was moving to SF to experience city life, but at this rate Gearty was my best friend and I was dreaming of multiple choice problems on nightly basis.
Dec 2016 – Snuck in BEC on the very last date of the extended window. Got my score 6 days later, and began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Shortly thereafter I learned that the extra 10 day window also applied to Q1'17! Originally I had thought it ended with Q4'16. A new type of motivation kicked in. I was going to study for REG during busy season.
Jan – Feb 2017: This job f***ing sucks. Busy season really made me doubt whether I made the right choice with this “career path”. I tell myself, whatever, my goal is to pass the exam, I'm so close, I'll worry about quitting later. Luckily my team and I only worked a few Saturdays during this period, so I spent the remaining Saturdays and all Sundays with Gearty and Olinto.
March 2017 – Came up on a one-week gap in my work schedule between switching clients. Blocked that time off by booking vacation with HR. Studied 9 days straight, 12-hours every day (shout out to stimulants – uh I mean coffee of course..) What a nice ‘vacation' that was. My roommate had been gone on a work-related trip for about a month at this point so I had zero connection to the outside world and was going quite insane by now. Took REG at the end of this 9 day binge, and passed. This was by far the hardest one for me since I had taken no Tax classes as electives in college. Total nightmare.
Today: Going to the gym for the first time in all of 2017. Since graduating college, becoming independent, moving to a new city, starting a new job, experiencing busy season and some family issues along the way, these have been the toughest 9 months of my life.
Though I haven't posted much in this forum, reading your encouragement and having this community provided a ton of support. Thank you guys! You can do it.
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