I just did something I’ve never done before in my life.

Not only have I never done this thing, never in my life have I ever even considered doing this thing.

And now that I’ve done it, I’m wondering what it says about the person I am today compared to the person I’ve been the last 42+ years.

For the first time in my career, my employer doesn’t offer regularly scheduled CPE for my CPA license.  They reimburse me for it, but I have to find it and take it more or less on my own time.  It’s just something I’ve never had to really worry about figuring out and making sure I get in until now.

So I’m doing this online class, for 16 CPE credits… and by “online class” I mean I download a 300 page document, “read” it, and then take an 80 question test.

There’s no time limit or anything (well I guess technically there is –  I need to get this done before December 31… ). I just need to get at least 80% on the test.  And!  if I should happen to fail, I could take the test over.  As many times as I want, actually.

I’ve been diligently working on the test here and there over the last couple months, reading the questions and finding the section in the 300 page document that covers that topic, reading it, and finding the answer I know is correct.

Tonight, I got to question 72.  I thought to myself, “Most of these answers seem to be B.  I wonder what would happen if I just answered the rest of these questions B.”  And I laughed at my joke.  Because, really, why would one blatantly not even try to answer a question on a test correctly?  I mean, an OPEN BOOK TEST.   Like, it’s foreseeable why one would just guess… I mean, it’s foreseeable but one would really only do that if they were in a huge hurry or actually really didn’t know the answer for sure.. then one might be okay with just narrowing down what seem to be the best choices and guessing… you know, if you were in a really really huge hurry.  Or if a man had a gun to your head and was saying… JUST GUESS.  YOU AREN’T ALLOWED TO LOOK IT UP!  IF YOU LOOK IT UP I’LL SHOOT YOU.  Then it would probably be okay to… you know… guess.  In that scenario.  Yes, in that scenario, it would definitely be okay to just … guess.  In that scenario, it would be okay to just pick an answer willy-nilly, right?

But the man did say to GUESS.  To be a legitimate guess you have to read the question and at least try to figure out the best answer, right?  So in that scenario I couldn’t just say B to the rest of the questions, could I?  Because then he might shoot me for not following directions.  The man specifically said GUESS, didn’t he?  It’s important to follow directions! If you don’t, you could get yourself shot!

I thought to myself, “Wait, hold up.  No one’s going to shoot you, first of all.  (Why are you even thinking about that… you need help!). Second of all, you’ve already looked up 71 answers.  You’re going to pass.  Just choose B for the rest of them.  Chill out.  Jut answer the questions.”

Anyway, just to be sure, I checked to see how many questions I had to get right in order to pass (56).. and figured I was on question 72, and I was sure about all of maybe 2 of my answers… and I thought again, “Why are you doing this??  Just answer the questions.  Pick a letter.  Submit the test.  Get back to your Saturday night!”

So I read question 72 and tried to think, based on my basic level of professional knowledge about impairment of goodwill, what might be the answer?  I got halfway through the choices and thought, “Why are you doing this??  Just pick a letter.  Submit the test.  Get back to your Saturday night!”

*BIG SIGH*

*WINCE*

I clicked:  B, B, B, B, B, B, B, B, B

9 B’s.

My hand hovered over the mouse, positioned over “SUBMIT TEST”.

I asked myself… are you SURE you want to do this?

*DEEP BREATH*

Yes.  I’m sure.

<click>

I waited with baited breath for my score.

I passed!  88%!!!!

Now… back to my regularly scheduled Saturday night.

Be honest.  Do you think less of me?