My Near Disaster with the CPAs

As many of you know, a large portion of my summer has been dedicated to taking the CPA exams.  Three down, one to go, and I can't wait to be done with them. However, getting the third test out of the way proved to be much more stressful and nerve-racking than it should have been.  Allow me to explain.

I scheduled my third test to be taken in California at the end of August.  I arrived in California late on Sunday, and my test was scheduled for Thursday.  I put in the hours of study I felt I needed the next three days, and when Wednesday night rolled around I took some time to get everything ready for my exam the next morning. During that process I remembered the strict identification requirements the CPA testing centers have.  They require either a) a current driver's license, or b) a current passport.  You might be thinking, "That's no problem.  You drove from Utah to California.  Surely you have a driver's license."  You would be right.  However, that license had been expired for more than a month, and who brings their passport when they visit home for a weekend?  So it was that Wednesday night I realized that I most likely would not be able to take my test.  

This is why that realization was so traumatic to me:

1) First, it’s important to understand how the CPA examination process works.  Every third month is an off-month, which means that no tests can be taken.  September happened to be an off-month, meaning that if I didn’t get my test taken in August, I’d have to wait until at least October.  However, my fourth test was scheduled for October, which meant that, realistically, I’d have to wait until November to take my missed test.  At that point I would have started work, and one of the worst scenarios I can imagine is doing accounting all day only to come home and study more accounting.  I wanted to avoid the work/study combination at all costs.  

2) I had spent the entire month of August studying for this specific exam.  Three hours a day, six days a week equals roughly 72 hours of studying – all of that would be thrown out the window.  The nature of the CPA exam is to study, learn, and then forget as quickly as possible.  There wouldn’t be a chance remembering anything I had learned two months down the road, especially when the subject is Auditing.

RIP Mom's vacuum and calculator I'd had for four years.

Thus I found myself in quite the conundrum.  I still had a last-minute solution I thought might save me.  My brother could photocopy my passport, send it to me and I could use that.  A call to the CPA examination center Thursday morning made it clear that wasn’t an option.  It was at this point that the expletives came out in full force and things were thrown and, in some cases, broken.

My mother then wondered if we could call my brother and fly him in from Utah with my passport. That was a very drastic measure, and I didn't want to reach that point until I tried my second brilliant solution, which was calling the DMV and seeing if I could renew my license in the three hours I had before my test.  I told my mom, who had the ticket pulled up and ready to be purchased, to wait until I finished talking to the DMV.  As you can guess, that wasn't an option either, because they ALSO need more identification that just an expired driver's license.  

The final solution was to buy my brother Brian a plane ticket and fly him out to California.  But Thursday was a day that just kept on giving: from the time my mother suggested buying a plane ticket to the time I got off the phone with the DMV (a period of about 15 minutes), the price of the round-trip plane ticket had jumped from around $300 to $500.  My 15 minute phone call cost me $200.

But at least it looked like I was going to be able to take my test.  Brian's flight was scheduled to land at 12:09.  My test was at 12:30.  Luckily, they give you a 30 minute window in which to arrive, so I had until 1:00.  The plane landed at 12:16, but of course there was traffic at the "arrivals" section of the airport.  Three lanes had conveniently been cut down to one.  When I finally got the pick-up zone, Brian informed me that he was actually upstairs at the "departures" section of the airport (where there was no traffic).  However, he ended up getting downstairs quickly, and I got my passport and headed off to take my test.  At 12:53 I walked into the testing center, seven minutes until my window would have closed.  I was able to take my test, so I guess all is well that ends well.

It was a crazy 24 hours that took another 24 to recover from, but there are lessons to be learned from this experience:

1. Don't ever let your driver's license expire.  
Trust me.

2. There are people who love you and care about you.
I was an absolute pain to deal with Wednesday night and Thursday morning.  But my mom stuck with me through it all, she laughed and rolled her eyes at how angry I was getting, and she helped me resolve my dilemma.  She did all that even when I broke her trusted vacuum.  She's a saint.  And then my brother, with absolutely no notice, dropped all he had on his schedule for two days to help me out when I needed it.  In both cases, what was important to me (taking my test) was important to them because they love me.  It's been said that a thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed, and in this case their two deeds left a greater impression on me than thousands of words would have.  In tough times, there are always people, whether we believe it or not, who love us enough to help.  

3. Don't just endure - endure well. 
When the test had been taken and life continued on as it had, I looked back at the experience and asked why it couldn't have happened differently.  Why couldn't I have remembered my passport?  Why couldn't the plane ticket have stayed the same price?  Why did there have to be traffic at the airport?  It seemed that there was one hiccup after another, and it seemed like God was kind of piling it on.  The end result would have been the same with or without all the bumps in the road: I would have taken my test.  So why did I have to go through all the frustration and stress? I understood it was a life test (not a CPA one), and there were things I had to learn and experience I had to gain.  I then asked myself if I had passed the test (once again, not the CPA one) that had been placed before me.  The fact that I had made it to the testing center and had taken my CPA test was no indication of passing this other test.  What came to mind was something Henry B. Eyring said of the these kinds of difficulties we encounter:

"The test a loving God has set before us is not to see if we can endure difficulty.  It is to see if we can endure it well."

I had endured the difficulty.  Things had been thrown my way, but I took my test in the end.  But I don't think I endured the difficulty all that well.  I lost my temper, was quick to anger, and cursed more than I have in a while (and if you've known me for some time, you know it must have been a lot).  Hopefully I've learned enough so that the next time frustrations come I can be more patient and have more faith.

4. Everything works out.
In the moment of our disappointments and trials, we may think they are too great and even impossible to overcome.  But things have a way of working out.  I love this quote by the late Gordon B. Hinckley:

"It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is.  It all works out.  Don't worry.  I say that to myself every morning.  It will all work out.  Put your trust in God, and move forward in faith and confidence in the future.  The Lord will not forsake us.  He will never forsake us.  If we put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers."

Although it's easier said than done, we must come to believe that our adversity will be but a small moment, and that things get better.  When I think of the things I struggle with and the disappointments I experience, I sometimes recall a certain man in John 5, who "had an infirmity thirty and eight years."  Thirty eight years. Can you believe that?  We get upset if our internet is down for thirty eight minutes or if our commute is longer than thirty eight miles.  If there was ever a man who had reason to lose faith, it might have been that guy.  Yet he had enough faith that Christ could heal him.  I think of him and I realize that there will be things in my life that aren't solved as quickly as I'd like, and there may be things that I have to go through and deal with for a long time.  The important thing is that we never lose faith, no matter how bad it seems at the moment.  Dieter Uchtdorf taught this when he said:

"No matter how bleak the chapter of our lives may look today, because of the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we may hope and be assured that the ending of the book of our lives will exceed our grandest expectations ... And to all who suffer, to all who feel discouraged, worried, or lonely, I say with love and deep concern for you, never give in.  Never surrender.  Never allow your despair to overcome your spirit."

It's a beautiful doctrine that the Atonement of Jesus Christ will set everything right. All the seeming injustices that we experience will be made right.  We will understand the answers to all the times we questioned God and asked "Why?".  The Atonement will reconcile it all: from our sins to our disappointments to our griefs. It will be alright in the end.  Remember the words of Corrie Ten Boom: "No pit is so deep that He is not deeper still."

The scores of messages and quotes that could be posted about this subject are too many, so I will end my writing here.  But consider the following media/quotes as an appendix to this post, with some of my favorite related messages.

Good Things to Come: My favorite Mormon Message, by Jeffrey R. Holland

Joel Burns: It Gets Better - I recently came across this and was very moved by his speech.  Joel Burns is a homosexual politician in Texas, and he gave this speech directed toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, encouraging them to hold on and that life gets better.  It was something he learned from his own experience.

Brad Paisley: Letter to Me - One of my favorite songs with a great message.

Some of my favorite quotes on the subject:

From Jeffrey R. Holland: "Some of you may wonder: Is there any future for me?  What does a new year or a new semester, a new major or a new romance, a new job or a new home hold for me?  Will I be safe? Will life be sound?  Can I trust in the Lord and in the future?  Or would it be better to go back, to stay in the past?  To all such of every generation, I call out, 'Remember Lot's wife.'  Faith is for the future. Faith builds upon the past but never longs to stay there.  Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the 'high priest of good things to come'.  Keep your eyes on your dream, however distant and far away.  Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow, and forever."

From David A. Bednar: "The Savior has suffered not just for our iniquities but also for the inequality, the unfairness, the pain, the anguish, and the emotional distresses that so frequently beset us. There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first.  You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, 'No one understands.  No one knows.'  No human being, perhaps, knows.  But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did.  And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life.  He can reach out, touch, succor - literally run to us - and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying only upon our own power."

From Thomas S. Monson: "I testify to you that our promised blessings are beyond measure. Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us as we walk uprightly and keep the commandments.  There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us.  My beloved brothers and sisters, fear not.  Be of good cheer.  The future is as bright as your faith."