Kricket is a Moderator on the Another71.com Forum and NINJA CPA Blogger.

This is going to be my last blog for Another71. After too many years and too much money, it’s over!

I’m still in shock and it hasn’t fully set in, that I really am finished. I know that I didn’t get through this alone. It took a lot of help from a lot of people.

I’d start naming them but I’m afraid I’d forget someone and I certainly don’t want to leave anyone out. So I’ll just say this…

To everyone who had faith in me when I didn’t, thank you.

To everyone who pushed me when I wanted to give up, thank you.

To everyone who said I could do this, thank you.

And to everyone who said I couldn’t do this, thank you very much because you were the reason I never gave up.

Some have called me their inspiration; my inspiration was everyone who ever said I should just quit or that I wasn’t worthy.

If you are struggling with this exam, remember that you aren’t alone. In fact, we are in some pretty good company. Jeff Elliott didn’t pass it on the first try and look at what he has built out of his pain and anguish.

Another71.com is one of the most visited, if not the most visited, CPA exam site on the internet. Thousands of people went to him when they needed help, and thousands have passed in the past 4+ years thanks to Jeff.

That’s some pretty good company to be in. I’m honored to be able to call him my friend.

If someone tells you that you can’t pass, or don’t deserve the title, CPA, just tell them that you can be anything you want to be. The only way to fail is to quit. Don’t quit and you won’t fail.

Cry, scream, get mad, do whatever you need to do and then focus that anger and energy on multiple choice questions or writing notes. You won’t pass if you go after this exam like a spring shower. Sometimes you have to hit it with the force of a Category 5 hurricane.

Find your fight song, for me it was Eminem’s “25 to Life”. (If you are offended by dirty words, do NOT search that on YouTube. It is Eminem!) Listen to your song and get ready to fight. Because some of us were just born to fight!

The CPA exam can be a bully. Don’t let the bully take your lunch money and laugh at you. Hit it back! Take back your lunch money and hold your head up high!

Don’t let this exam change you. Don’t let it take you to the dark place that I went to. It’s scary and sad there. Remember that you are not alone. You will never be alone.

If you aren’t struggling, and are passing or have passed the exam easily, I’d like to ask you to please think twice before you judge those who have to fight. You don’t know what else they are fighting.

We all have our demons that chase us and taunt us. I have my share of demons chasing me. I lost a son to SIDS 18 years ago. Four miscarriages later I finally got to be a mother. That’s just one demon that has chased me for almost half of my life.

I was studying for audit in the VA hospital next to my dad’s bed when he took his last breath. He was just 68 years old.

I said in my last blog that I wasn’t worried about my score because FAR was a million miles away. I just wanted to “pass” the biopsy of the “thing” in my thyroid. Well, some would say that I passed the wrong test.

The thyroid biopsy came back positive for Hurthle cell cancer. The demon that was stopping me from passing was a recessive gene that I inherited from my mother before I was born. Your thyroid controls little things like your ability to concentrate, causes fatigue and your ability to sleep.

For me, being confused, tired and sleepy was not conducive to studying for the CPA exam. But, all will be well! The type of cancer I have is easily treated. It didn’t really matter what the surgeon told me today, I knew I wasn’t afraid.

After the CPA exam, there isn’t much that can scare me. This is just another one of those demons that taunts me.

If this exam has taught me anything, it was how to fight. It taught me how to get mad and how to focus that anger on the very thing that was stopping me from being what I wanted to be.

So please try to be kind to those who are fighting. You don’t know what demons are chasing them. They may just need the right word from you to give them the confidence to beat the bully. A kind word goes a lot farther than an angry one.

I’m scheduled for surgery April 16th and if all goes well, that fight will be over too. Then I can finally put my life back together and get busy living the life I’ve worked so hard for and sacrificed so much for.