It seems that I have once again gone over a year without updating this blog, so this is going to be another life update post.

Family Crisis

In my last post, I mentioned that my parents had covid. Shortly after that post, my dad was hospitalized because of covid symptoms and, while he was already in the hospital, had a major stroke. He passed away a few days later on January 3, 2022, at about 4:30 p.m. At some point, I discovered that day was JRR Tolkien’s birthday, and I had a weird mental flash of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis heckling him about showing up late for the birthday party because of the time difference.

The idea of my dad hanging out and arguing with some of my favorite dead authors somehow made the initial grieving process easier, but I still have moments where missing him hits me out of nowhere. Recently my boyfriend was teaching me to drive a manual transmission car and that gave me flashbacks to when my dad was first teaching me to drive. That was a bittersweet moment.

Education

With my dad’s passing, I ended up switching to online classes for winter term of my junior year so that I could help my mom with memorial details, sorting out her finances, and help her move into her new house. That took about half of the term, but after most of the urgent items were taken care of, I drove back to my dorm in La Grande. Fortunately, in-person versions of most of my classes were also offered and my instructors were agreeable, so I was able to sit in on class lectures and participate with my classmates for the second half of the term. I took as many in-person classes as I could spring term, then moved in with my mom for the summer while I continued to take classes online and helped her with more details of her fire insurance claim.

For my senior year, most of the classes I needed to graduate were only being offered online, so I didn’t think it was worth moving back to La Grande. I completed my last year online, which enabled me to move out of state. I graduated September 8, 2023, with my Bachelor of Science in Accounting with an additional 20-credit focus in managerial accounting. I graduated summa cum laude with a cumulative GPA of 3.99, which surprised absolutely no one who knows me.

Washington Move & Relationship

So why did I move out of state? The short answer is “because I could.” As far as I could tell from my research, state residency requirements for tuition prices are set based on the previous year, so it was the first time moving out of state was a viable option for me.

The long answer involves romance. A few years ago, I briefly dated someone from Washington, but between the distance and some other issues, our relationship was short-lived. In May of 2022, I started a long-distance relationship with someone else from Washington, but because I was now able to move out of Oregon without a tuition hike, that relationship only had to be long-distance for about four months. In September of 2022, I moved to Frederickson, Washington (close to Puyallup and Tacoma) and I have lived there ever since.

So who am I dating? Considering that my last relationship ended within a few months of posting about it here, I’m disinclined to answer that. However, I’ve been dating this person for about a year and a half now and I feel good about it. We’ve talked about getting married, but he wants me to change my last name, and I have no desire to sign a long last name again. This is a stupid dispute, but one that I care way too much about. After putting in an absurd amount of time and effort to change my name back to my maiden name during covid, I don’t want to deal with that ever again.

Little Brother's Business

My little brother is getting married! In about a week and a half, he and his Korean fiancé are tying the knot. Unfortunately, plane tickets over there are expensive and I can't afford that right now, but I'm hoping to be able to visit him in the next year or so after I start making grown-up money. Here's a picture of them that I shamelessly stole from her Facebook account. Aren't they cute?

My Current Pursuits

I was fortunate enough to receive one of EOU’s ten scholarships for the Institute of Management Accountants’ Certified Management Accountant program. This scholarship covers a CMA review course of my choice, three years of IMA membership, and fees for my first attempts at the two parts of the CMA exam. Thus, my next step is to study a lot, schedule my exams, and take them. Long-term, passing this exam and getting the two years of work experience required for my CMA will help me to stand out in the management accounting world. I’ve also considered pursuing my CPA since I only need 4 more college credits to be eligible to sit for that exam, but one certification is enough to pursue at a time.

I am also hunting for my first post-graduation job in the field of accounting. Even though I’ve taken two classes on resumes, cover letters, and the job-searching process, this is a bit overwhelming for me, so I’ve been procrastinating on my search by doing too many chores around my house and generally falling into old patterns from when I was a housewife. Today I determined that I needed to get out of the house to avoid all those distractions, so I’ve been camped out at the library for several hours. This has helped immensely.

Honestly, I think my job search classes may have made the job searching process more complicated than necessary. My classes stressed the importance of customizing my resume to each job posting, which is great if the job is one I really want, but I think there is also merit to having a basic accounting resume for quick applications. For instance, I don’t want to overwhelm myself if I find a good job posting and don’t have time to make a more customized resume. I also don't think that every job opportunity is so great that it warrants putting in hours of work just to apply. So today I made a basic accounting resume and sent it to a friend to look over. Tomorrow I will take another look at Indeed and an accounting firm’s website to see what positions I want to apply for. Wish me luck.