And one journey ends

September 2008 I started a journey to a new career.  I went back to school and took an accounting program at a community college.

When I completed the program in April 2011, I figured that I was pretty good at it and enjoyed so I enrolled in a commerce program starting in September 2011.  I graduated from that program in 2013.  In May 2013 I started working at an accounting firm, with the intent of pursuing a professional accounting designation.

On November 28 this year, I found out that I passed the last of the series of professional exams I had written back in September.  And with that, I am now about 5 months of professional experience away from earning my CPA.

I can't even begin to discribe how that feels, other than relief.  Saying that I feel a sense of accomplishment is an understatement.  I've never set myself to finish something that was so long nor required so much work in studying.  In a way, I feel as though I've wasted earlier parts of my life because I've now realized that I could have done this at any point in time.  Part of me wants to invent time travel for the sole purpose of going back and sucker punching my younger self and yelling "MAYBE TRY WORKING HARDER, JACKASS!"

But a bigger part of me just wants to keep going forward, realizing that all I have to do is work harder and I can do pretty much anything.  I've always had goals and dreams, but now I feel like I can actually achieve them.  And that feels great.