Sarah is a NINJA CPA Blogger.

Sometimes it seems so FAR Away…

I feel like I have been on this journey for so long. In reality it truly has been a few years now, but I’ve only been giving it a fair try for about a year.

I bought my first FAR review book before I even graduated. That was all the way back in 2012, and starting out I had convinced myself that I had to read the entire thing cover to cover and soak up every word (because, hello, I'm a straight A student, and that's how it's done – or so I thought).

Shortly after graduating I ended up moving to New York City to be near my then fiancé (now husband- see I did accomplish something in those 3 years!). This was the beginning of probably the most trying time in my life, and one of the most pointless, halfhearted efforts I have ever undertaken.

If you don't know this, moving to this city is an experience like no other. Let’s put it this way, I was on a Megabus here with a suitcase full of clothes after being hired at a coffee shop in the East Village, and I didn't even know where I was going to sleep that night.

I ended up crashing with friends and moving through every borough within 2 months before finally landing in Queens. Frazzled and overwhelmed doesn’t even begin to describe it.

In the midst of all this I was supposed to be studying for FAR, carrying that massive book with me everywhere I went. I thought working at a coffee shop would be a perfect gig for this, I could save all my brain power for studying and just make ends meet, a true NYC story. I can't even begin to tell you how wrong I was.

Every time I opened that book I felt like I was trying to learn a new language. And to make matters worse, when I would study, I would find that I just truly didn’t care. I wasn’t engaging with the material whatsoever, and this was just me going to the next “step” that I had set for myself in life.

I was so discouraged and uninterested, and just exhausted from the constant motion of the city and the endless hours on my feet serving snotty NYU students their frappa-latte concoctions, all I could do was fall into bed at night (in my kitchen-less studio in Queens that I could barely afford), and wait for my 4:30 am alarm to begin at the cafe again the next day. Could I have possibly set myself up for failure any more?

Obviously this isn’t the end of the story, there is so much more to it (stay tuned!) but the main thing that I have learned here is how to set myself up for success.

If I had been honest with myself and what I was going through, I could have saved myself a lot of stress and heartache, and this road to “CPA Freedom”, as I like to say (freedom to read for pleasure some day!), wouldn’t feel so endlessly winding.

There is an end in sight, and now I feel that I’m truly capable because I’m being honest with what is required to EARN this incredible milestone in life.