I am scheduled to take the Auditing & Attestation part of the CPA Exam Jan 19, 2010 5 P.M. I got my results back for the Financial & Reporting part of the exam which I took on Oct 31, 2009. I received the results via the internet, on Dec 28, 2009. I got a score of 79, which a score of 75 is needed to pass. I studied since August 2008 for that part; vigorously at 1st, with plans to take the exam in Jan 2009. That plan got thwarted with the death of my cousin Jeff, by motorcycle accident on Sat, Nov 1, 2008, 3 days before his birthday and also his birthday was Nov 4th, the day the First African American Man was elected President of the United States of America. You know it’s funny, life’s coincidences. The most important day in World History of the past four or five generations, also my cousin’s birthday, HE DID NOT LIVE TO SEE. Also, 364 days after the day of my cousin’s death, I sat for and passed the most critical, detailed and arduous part of the CPA Exam.
When I started this journey, which I knew would take hard work and dedication, a tapering of social activities, etc; more hard work than I’ve ever had to put in to do anything, or rather in such a short period of time. I’d planned on taking all four parts of the exam in one year. I’d planned on coming home after work every day and studying form 7 P.M. to 11 P.M. or 12 A.M. and all day Saturdays and Sundays. Well, I stuck to that time constraint, but I wasn’t digesting the info fast enough so I had to revise my plan. When my cousin died I slowed down my studying, and also started dating and flying back and forth to Columbus, OH to see my cousin’s 21 year old niece-in-law who I met at his funeral. My cousin’s death slowed down my urgency, so I had to revise my plan for the CPA Exam. I ended up taking the FAR part of the Exam June 2009. I didn’t finish the exam, and plus the parts I did finish, I didn’t do well on, so I knew when I left I didn’t do well. When I received my score, I had a 59. I took the summer off, decided to take a prep course which cost me $3,100.00 to begin in Sept 2009. The class really wasn’t that much help. The instructors flew through the material, really no questions asked. If I hadn’t been studying the material in detail, 10 months prior, I would have been confused as hell; the way the instructors breezed through the material. But it was easy for me to catch on and re-review, and hone in on the areas I was weak in understanding. But anyway, I finished the exam the second time around. I still didn’t feel confident I had passed. So my plan was to study for both the auditing and FAR parts for 3 weeks in January 2010, then take both exams during the 4th week of the month. When I found out I passed the FAR part and wouldn’t have to put myself through so much drudgery, boy was I elated. I’ve taken the audit part. I feel confident I passed than both times leaving from the FAR Exam, but still I am unsure. It feels good to be halfway finished with this process.
I’m excited about becoming a CPA. I’m hoping I can begin to work independently and make a wealthy or affluent living wage. I would like to manage entertainers’, sports’ figures and rappers’ money: pay their taxes, invest their money for them, pay their bills; shit, I can even become their personal stylist. As a gift to myself, and also because I needed it, bought myself a 100% wool two piece suit today from Bloomingdales. I was walking past, and just like a fine beautiful woman, the suit on the mannequin caught my eye. The price of the pants, $275.00 I could handle, but the jacket at $675.00 I definitely had to think about. Here were my thoughts. 1. I need a suit. 2. The color grey & black wool tweed is classic and I could wear it for years to come. 3. The suit is representative of the style, class and quality – not only of what I like for my life to portray – but what I would like my life to be. 4. As a CPA trying to gain the confidence and trust of clients, the chic professionalism of the suit would help with that, so It’s actually an investment in my future. And, I have a few grand saved up, so though it went on my store credit card, I could actually pay for it flat out, which I will within a month anyway. Billy Reid was the brand of the suit. Now I must buy a shirt to go with it and this also forces me to purchase a pair of black dress shoes. I got my heart set on a pair of cap-toe classic black Ferrogamos $460.00. I may check on a pair of Barker Blacks $700.00 or Berluti $1,100.00. I don’t know why, but I have a proclivity for luxury. I need wool, wood and genuine leather in my life and I’m gonna try and work hard to get it and make it affordable. I do not want to live life on credit, at least not for shoes and clothes.
So my reason for studying and taking the CPA Exam is because at age – yrs old, people do not seem to take me seriously. I’m unsure why but I think it’s because as people say, I DO NOT LOOK MY AGE. The other reason I think is because I’m Black! It seems, on the surface, no one, not even Black women, take Black men seriously. My frat brother told me 9 yrs ago, I needed to change my dress code from the Hip Hop baggy jeans and Timberlands to more chic and dress clothes. While at age –, I started to work on that, it definitely helped with the quality of ladies who look my way; at work, switching from baggy khakis and boxy ugly button up shirts, to nicely fitting slacks and shirts seemed to make people jealous and competitive; look at me like “who does he think he is!?”
At work, it seems like they deny me responsibility, give me little credit for any hard work I do complete expeditiously, and for damn sure SPOT LIGHT any MISTAKES I make without any mentoring on what to do better. It feels like they do not want me to advance; one reason I am not telling them I am taking the CPA Exam. They might not take me serious, or they may try and thwart my studying and completion of the exam by piling on responsibility. What I might do is go to them when I complete my CPA and demand more responsibility and $20,000 extra in salary. Hell, this one girl came in making $80,000 and according to a document I saw, they just gave he a $13,000 raise. They made a big fuss about giving me $6,000 raise. At the same time I tell them that, I’ll be looking to get the hell out of there. FUCK THEM!
But I really don’t want to work for anyone else, I have all these ideas about businesses. 1. Non-Profit Organization. 2. Ethnic Greeting Card company. 3. Out-of-Home Advertising Company. 4. Accounting & Financial Planning firm. 5. Trivia Pursuit game idea. I would like to pursue them all; working all day on most days from 8AM-12AM 80 Hrs a week.
The Only Child 1988 