Joshua is a NINJA CPA blogger.
The Number 1 lesson for NINJAs I can bestow upon you is this: if you want to check your score on your honeymoon, make sure you have the right amount of cell service so your spouse doesn’t have to listen to you swear every time the site crashes on your phone.
That being said, the phenomenally bad reception in Hobbiton, New Zealand allowed me just enough cell service to check my REG score. In what can be the best wedding present we have gotten yet, I PASSED AND I AM DONE WITH THE CPA EXAM!!!!
I was able to show my wife (still not sick of calling her that) and we both just had a serene moment of silence sitting on the bus back.
The hours, days, and weeks of sitting at a desk and watching lecture videos and taking notes is now over.
No more lectures, no more NINJA MCQ’s by the hundreds, no more sweating out scores and spending extended time in Prometric centers. Best of all, no more self-doubt or wondering if I am good enough to pass the CPA Exam.
As we sit in New Zealand (which is a must visit for adventurers out there), my mind repeatedly comes back to the final song of the Lord of the Rings trilogy that says “Lay down your sweet and weary head….you have come to journey’s end.” Amen, Annie Lennox, amen.
I wish I could have all the page space needed to thank the many, many people who helped get me across the finish line these last 16 months. There are two thank yous that I want to extend for this passage, however.
The first is to my amazing wife, whose unyielding support and constant willingness to help in any way possible with this exam made those long nights and moments of self-doubt seem like trivial issues and not hurdles that would always keep me from this license.
I love her more than she will ever know and I wish all of you to find a person like her that will be as supportive of you and your dreams in your life.
The second thank you is, to broad stroke it, you. Thank you, NINJA community and admins, for making this journey possible. It was on this site in 2014 I discovered the ability to take online credits for accounting that would satisfy the CPA requirement instead of needing to take the obscenely expensive MACC route.
You all were my Gandalf to my Bilbo, and you nudged me out the door on a whirlwind adventure. This site was my cheering section, my support group and my mentors without ever meeting in person.
I cannot overstate the importance of having this site to keep me pushing forward, and showing that there is nothing that is impossible if you are willing to work your butt off for it. I may never meet any of you, but you will always have a special place in my heart.
So this is it, for those looking for my bad puns in my posts to end, pop the champagne and crank up the Katy Perry. I find myself missing the idea of coming to A71 on a daily basis or contributing my journey’s log to the site, but I will be able to look back on those memories fondly as I move forward in my career and future endeavors. Plus, I will still pop back on the site because there is always great discussion and I can’t quit A71 ☺.
For those that don’t believe this is an achievable goal, stop doubting yourself. This exam is a foe with one key weakness: your unrelenting desire to pass.
If you can put in the time and work, you will be able to conquer the exam and can join me and the others at the party on top of Mt. CPA. I look forward to handing you your first beverage when you make the summit.
And now, because it’s my last post and I can do whatever I want (not really, please don’t let them know I said that!), I want to leave you with a quote from a teacher we probably all had.
Good luck NINJAs and I wish you all the best. This is Gronk-a-Donk, signing off.
“Believe in yourself, dream, try, do good.” – George Feeny
