Vocations (no, this isn't a religious entry)

Last night I used all four hours of scheduled class time struggling through a final exam in Advanced Accounting. Afterward I told Fred, the CPA and UoP instructor, "Another four hours and I'd have nailed it.  As it is, I'm not happy." 

Even on the open book, open laptop test, I simply couldn't do all that work in the time allotted.  My spreadsheets didn't balance.  Good thing Fred gives partial credit for getting most of a problem right.  Maybe I'll get a C on this; if I'm really lucky, a B. 

Until my previous course, Intermediate Accounting III, I hadn't gotten less than an A for a course at University of Phoenix. Now it looks like I'll be A-less for two courses in a row.  Rats. 

It matters, because all this is a warm-up for taking a CPA exam next year.  I have to learn this, or $20,000 worth of student loans will be for nothing.  I was so good at this stuff in the early stages, but it's getting harder, and I'm getting slower at working it all out.  I keep reassuring myself, Stewart Smalley style, that I'm good enough and smart enough.  But my confidence isn't, shall we say, at an all-time high. Still, I have to keep going.  It's a bit late to study for some other profession, even if there were something better suited to my talents, interests and personality.  Accounting is a good profession for an introvert, and that's what I mostly am.

All I want to do, really, is finish the final edit on Heirs of Mavarin, and work on To Rule Mavarin for a while before revising Mages of Mavarin. But there's no money in that, especially if I don't submit anything anywhere. I haven't sent out a query in 18 months.

So this weekend I'll do a little Mavarin stuff, and start reading downloaded chapters for the tax accounting course.  It's supposed to be an easy course, and the instructor is really good. 

Maybe after that course, I'll feel less desperate about whether I'm really up to this accounting stuff.

Karen