My educational journey

I normally wouldn’t post something like this until I got my marks back just in case I managed to get less than 35% on my last and only final on December 21. But waiting till after I get my exam mark would not reflect all these things that I learned below. So here it is, a documentary of my educational journey on my last day of class of my university career  AND my last day working in post secondary which played a huge role in my education. It is crazy that these two events would happen on the same day after all these years.

Eight years ago I had zero plans to attend post secondary because I didn’t believe I could do it. I didn’t have the money, I didn’t have people to ask questions. Education was foreign to me. (This is odd to me now as I am a huge advocate of education as you will see below). I always struggled with comprehension growing up. It always took me a lot longer to grasp concepts especially when it came to social studies. I never saw myself as intelligent. EVER. All these things combined, I just knew that someone like me could never have an education. Where would you even start when you could barely get through the last of your high school education? Fast forward 8 years and now I have a college diploma and after December 21, a university degree. Who knew? Some of my closest friends have also told me that I am one of the hardest working, organized, and intelligent people they know. I didn’t really see it until a couple of years ago and it is still strange to hear.

After meeting some amazing people when I was 17/18, I was told I was too smart to not further my education. For whatever reason that stuck with me and the words of encouragement inspired me to make a good life for myself and keep my options open. It didn’t take me long to apply to do a diploma at NAIT and receive full funding after the recommendation to seek out all my resources/options. It was the wrong program for me and I did it for all the wrong reasons but I learned practical skills and it landed me a job as a step student resulting in six years of work experience in Post-seconday. I was immediately employed after my first year of studies with Lethbridge College. I fell in love with how quickly my life changed with only a year of school. So many doors suddenly seemed opened. The possibilities seemed endless.

In those short four months of work, I met someone who really reached out to me even though I only knew her for a few weeks. She told me that I was too smart to be working in the role I was working in that summer. That I should go and get a Bachelor of Management degree. It resonated with me hard. I started to think “why cant I?” My diploma thus far had been a breeze. I started to believe I could be one of those people with a university degree. I wanted all the opportunities and the security a degree could give me. Canada was also entering into a recession at the time and there was so much uncertainty in the economy that I wanted to make sure that my future self had a good life.

I finished my second year of my diploma not because I wanted too but because if I didn’t, I would have to pay the funding back I received. I was again immediately employed by Lethbridge College as a step student at the end of my diploma andon the same day I started the journey to my degree. I started taking classes online and at night for the next year while I worked for the college full time.

I left the college after a year to work at the university for the next year. When I left the college I was told to “not give up on my education for a job and that no one could take the degree away from me” once I finish it. That also resonated with me. If I quit taking classes and enjoyed the perks of working and having a life, would I ever want to go back? I just couldn’t get out the idea of having a degree. I needed to know if I could do it but it felt like it would take forever. I decided to take classes one more year part-time. 

The very first university class I took was English 1900. An english literature class. The entire class was writing essays and interpreting plays, short story’s, and poems. All things I have never been good at. I remember that feeling I got the first time I stepped foot in that university class. That alone was an accomplishment for me. I was worried about getting through that class since it didn’t interest me so I made sure to have a plan of action going into it. I started all my essays three weeks early and met with the prof to get feedback and then made revisions. I ended up getting A+’s on all of the papers and an A in the class overall. I was so inspired after that. I wanted to come back to school full time but waited until I finished my year long term at work. I went back full time in Fall 2012. I saved a large amount of money and knew that I had enough to pay for school and sustain myself for at least a year and a half of studies  and only have to work 10 hours a week. After the money runs out I decided I would just figure it out when it got there. I had 30 classes to complete after what transferred over from my diploma and what I had taken part-time. It wasn’t going to be easy and there was no end in sight. I figured it would probably take me at least 4 years to finish if I did a co-op and if I only took four classes a semester.

I continued working for the university for another year and a half part time while I went to school full time. It was a good decision at the time because of the convenience but was ultimately very tough as I was never focused on school or work. I struggled hard through most of the degree. It felt like I was barely hanging on. I made tons of sacrifices yet I still put everything first including work, friends, family and relationships. And I was SO hard on myself. I hated most of the classes and started doubting if I really had it in be to be an accountant. That was probably the hardest period of the entire degree. Going to class upset all the time so I never connected with my classmates and second guessed if this degree really was what I wanted.

All my life I thought I wanted to be an accountant without ever really knowing why that was. But over the last few years I realized it is who I am. Down to the core. The “accountability” of accounting speaks to me. The fact that the numbers dont lie. The numbers tell a story.

It wasn’t until I went back to work for Lethbridge College two years ago, with about 15 classes left in my degree, that I started to believe in myself again. I receive(d) so much encouragement there. They made me believe in my skills and abilities again. And it wasn’t until after another horrible relationship that I started to focus on everything I wanted for myself in life. I started to enjoy and TRUST the journey and believe that accounting was for me. I learned from talking to people at work that I didn’t have to love all of accounting to be an accountant and most of the things you learn at school you either don’t use or you will re-learn on the job and that that is OKAY. I also started to really connect with other students. My favorite part of the last two years has been helping out other students. University isn’t a walk in the park and students have so many other things going on that it helped me to be able to help them as I struggled with the exact same things. After that, the rest of the degree seemed more manageable. I could see the light at the end of the long tunnel and I have connected with sooo many students and it is so awesome to see how similar some of us are and that most of us have struggled with the exact same things and we are all still going to be accountants.

After all that, today I accomplish the biggest and hardest dream I ever had and I learned the hardest thing about it was me. I am the hardest battle I’ll ever fight. My degree taught me about accounting, sure, but it taught me that there isn’t anything that i can’t do. It comes down to how badly you want it and what you are willing to do to get it. A lot of students feel ashamed to go ask a prof questions before an exam or to review their midterm with them before the next exam but I learned that sometimes you need to pull out all of your resources in order to be successful, especially if you aren’t one of those people where you understand something the first time you hear it or see it. That doesn’t make you less intelligent. Realizing that you aren’t one of those people and acting on it makes you intelligent (to me). I also learned that even the wrong things still bring you to the right places especially in the context of education. Education is NEVER a bad idea and you’ll always be better for it tomorrow than you were today. After all these years, I know without a doubt I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. My education led me to Budapest, Hungary. A place I dreamed about for so long. I completed a class there and got to spend the summer with my family. Never in a million years could I have planned that more perfectly.

I’ll forever be grateful to the fundamental people who helped me realize I was so much better than what I saw in myself. You always saw potential in me from the very start, something I couldn’t do. But most of all, it taught me how very little it took to change someone’s life. If it wasn’t for those few people reaching out to me, I don’t know if I ever would have stopped to think that I was so much better and sought out my education like I did. I hope that someday I can have a similar impact on someone’s life and help them see that they have so much potential in them and to follow their dreams.

I will always look back on this time as one of the happiest periods of my life. It was hard and long but I never gave up. I have a hard time picturing myself being anything but a student now. And it makes me sad that it is ending after I feel like I finally connected with some amazing people.

BUT I am so happy that as of tomorrow, I will start using my degree. Not wasting anytime. I know this position I have accepted will lead me to great things. It is a great stepping stone into the accounting world and it will have many positive impacts on my life including my biggest goal of 2016 outside of work which is finally going to be health and fitness!

But lastly, I am over and above proud of my 18 year old self for realizing what my current 25 year old self and beyond needed and all the sacrificing that went into it all and showing up for class when I just couldn’t get out of bed on my darkest days. I always said after every class that I was “so lucky” to pass. It wasn’t luck. It was day after day of hard work and never giving up.

I fucking did it.

Kristina