Frustrated Content Creator
Another weekend has passed, all of us are still stuck at our home and can’t go out. If there were no pandemic, believe me, I’m probably somewhere else, in the mall, with my friends or probably in a relative’s house in Tagaytay because it’s my aunt’s birthday this weekend.
*Forgive me if I’ve been ranting about going outside lately*, the furthest that I have gone lately was strolling around our village. When I go out I usually dine out or go to some hidden thrift stores, but right now, dining inside the restaurants is still prohibited, so bear with me a little longer because the extrovert inside me can’t be easily tamed. https://read.cash/@deedum/an-extrovert-in-quarantine-421992a0
To be honest, I’m running out of ideas to do at home, my brain is pretty fried up. I tried cooking, dancing, making music, exercising, writing, sewing, make-up and more other stuff. I feel like Anna in Frozen where she sang “Do you wanna build a snowman?” and the line that goes, “Just watching to hours tick byyyyyy~”. (don’t lie, you did the tongue click part! HAHAHAHA)
But for this weekend I decided to spice things up a bit. This past few months, I’ve been learning all about investing in general, it started with the what is the right bank to keep your money, how to save and build an emergency fund. Then I dived deeper with the magic of time deposits and high-interest savings banks. When I got the gist of it, I transferred to MP2 savings and I decided to mess up with the stock market or did the stock market mess with me? Because apparently my portfolio is bleeding red, right now (aren’t we all?).
noise.cash post: https://noise.cash/post/ln54rm06
Later on, I’ve gotten interested in learning cryptocurrency but I was too scared to hop in because of the risks involved in the crypto-world. We learned a bit of crypto-currency when I was in college and one thing was taught to us, be weary.
Luckily, my sister, @Hanzell **,** had a slight background to it, as she is been doing it for quite some time now and introduced me to noise.cash and read.cash. At first I was hesitant because in college great caution was given to us in investing in crypto. After quite some time, I've been enjoying myself and meeting such amazing people and friends! Along side with it, I earned some BCH to HODL.
On one of my random scroll here in read.cash, I came across @Crypto.Maniac 's article about how noise.cash can or might even surpass other social media platforms in the future. I quite agree with him, as a person having to experience most of the social media platforms. https://read.cash/@Crypto.Maniac/i-bet-noisecash-can-become-a-great-competitor-of-the-other-popular-social-media-platform-5ad2f03f
I’ve been doing content creation for a while now, I take my tweets and Instagram posts way too seriously. My friends even call me an Instagram-conscious person (I don’t know if that term exists), because **I always** and ***I mean always*** make sure that the shot was properly taken and it will take me forever to think of captions that can really vibe with the picture.
Here are some of them:
To be honest, I always dreamt of being a content creator and my friends are on all out support, as they can really see the effort that I put into it. They would always tell me that I should take my content seriously because I have the potential to make money out of it. But no matter what I do to pierce in the bubble of content creators in other social media sites, I just can’t.
Maybe that’s another reason why I post so randomly because I transferred from one niche to another. I tried posting about make-up, about fashion and styling, about nails, about my life, travel and I almost tried it all, but no matter what I do, I don’t get enough engagements to be considered as a content creator.
I don’t have the equipment and the talent for it, or so I thought, or maybe luck is just not on my side, I don’t really know. That’s why I already have given up a long time ago, but still tried my best to post good contents on both platforms. *Right now, I’ve been doing it not professionally but just out of pure hobby.*
Then I discovered noise.cash, just had my account for a month now. If you would visit my noise.cash (https://noise.cash/u/sunshinestella), you could see how I treat it as my Twitter and Instagram from the moment I got into it. I still think I post randomly but I take time to post good stuff out there and it hit me, *I’ve been doing this for the longest time.* ***But this time, I get to do it with monetary value!***
I had engagements in this platform which are so amazing. I get so inspired with those that have been here for months and I get to inspire other people with my stories and posts too! I get to make friends and I should say that the community is so welcoming here. There are no boundaries or distance felt between those new users and those who have been in the platform since the beginning.
***I know there are many dreams that noise.cash is allowing people to achieve,*** especially monetary ones, it also has helped others even on their basic needs but for me, ***it helped me realize that I can still achieve my dream of monetizing my content.*** I can’t say yet that I’m a professional content creator, I’m way far from that but out of all the engagements in any other social media platforms that I’ve got, I know I already inspired some people and that just melts my heart.
***Finally, a platform where people can appreciate what I share without the constant thought of competition***, because honestly, I think the competition of content creation in Instagram and Tiktok is so high, or is it just me?
***Finally, a platform where I can post randomly and people would still interact with me, especially with the new update.***
This got me thinking why maybe I can’t be one of those so-called professional content creators in other platforms, maybe I am not meant for it. Maybe I am meant to be here or maybe I’m still not meant here, who knows? But all I know is that, I still have a lot to improve on myself and my contents but this time around, I am more motivated than ever and I hope you are too!
Let’s keep creating and comment your noise.cash accounts too! I'd love to see your contents!
See you around! 🌤
Thanks @ScottBusiness and @FrieLincs for the sponsorship ❤️ Very much appreciated ❤️
Today, I affirm myself...
Hello Summer! but for me, hello allergies! Achhhoooo!
It's another month, a third of the year done, yet lately, I feel like I'm not accomplishing anything. Lately, the question, "*Why do I feel like nothing is happening or nothing will happen at all?* " is bugging my mind. To be honest, I'm facing an issue right now, I can't bring myself to set goals for the future. I don't know if I'm scared or I'm just in a very low mood lately.
I used to easily set goals and try my hardest to achieve it. Most of the time I achieve what I set and I'm used to it. I always had a timeline and got everything under control but when the pandemic started, I had a very hard time, especially in achieving goals and following through my timeline.
2020 was basically the year were I'm just trying to hold myself together and survive. In 2020, I disregarded most of my plans, whether it be furthering my education, Master's in Business Administration, travelling, teaching or even expanding my career, most of them, I cancelled or postponed. It's not because I wanted to but I started pushing myself the hardest to meet this unreasonable goals and timelines and it felt that it was unhealthy for me. ***I must say, 2020 really crushed me down.*** It's a year where I was just humbled and made me pause to look at everything I had and achieved so far and just be really thankful for what I have in my life.
To be honest, I rarely look back which means I also rarely regret things. I sometimes stay in the present to just absorb things but for most time, I'm looking ahead. My mind is racing with *"What's comes next?"* or *"Okay, now where are we headed?"* and usually I come up with answers easily. But this pandemic forced me to live in the moment, then my questions started to turn into "Why is the world so cruel?" or "Why is nothing going my way?" The pandemic forced me to look at the things and people that surrounds me and to tell you, it was a huge adjustment for me.
With all of those thoughts in my head, I am welcoming this month with a more positive side or at the very least I will try to, with an affirmation to myself. An **affirmation** is *a statement or proposition that is declared to be true.* I am declaring all of this because honestly, I feel like I've been really hard on myself and I rarely see the good things I do. I figured to let you in on this part and hopefully, I'd encourage some of you to affirm yourselves too!
Today, I affirm myself that I am capable.
I am capable of achieving things which I set my heart and soul into. I am capable of pushing back my boundaries and surpassing the limits society had given me and the limits that I have given myself. I am capable of learning, growing and striving to be a better person each and everyday. I affirm myself that my potential is limitless and that I can do more.
Today, I affirm myself that I am loved and valued.
I am loved by my family and friends and it's okay to be vulnerable and to depend to them. More importantly, I am loved and valued by myself. It's hard for me to be patient with myself but I am trying my very best to accept myself wholly and without removing the parts of myself that I don't want.
Today, I affirm myself that I am unique.
I am the only one that can truly be me. I affirm myself that I don't need to fit in to standard the society create and the best version of myself would simply be me being me. There are things that I can't do but there are also things that only I can do. Today, I embrace my imperfections because it what makes me unique.
Today, I affirm myself that I am healing and growing.
I am healing from all that I have been through and I am slowly growing and building myself to a person I want myself to be. I still stumble and for sure I will still stumble along the way, but I know that I have grown so much from the person I used to and it makes me happy to see that I can be a better person each day.
Today, I affirm myself that my dreams are valid.
All of the dreams that I have set for myself are valid even if I don't achieve them. That I am in control of my life, I may not be able to take control of the situation or circumstances but I can always control how I respond or react. I affirm myself that it's okay to dream big and would always want to remind myself that if my dreams doesn't scare me, it's too little and that I can do more and achieve more.
Today, I affirm myself that I am learning to be patient.
Patience is one of the traits that I really, really want to acquire. And I remember this story where it goes like, if you ask for patience, God won't hand it to you, He will put you into situations where you'll be impatient and you have to learn patience for yourself. I affirm that I am learning to be patient with the people around me, my circumstances and especially to myself. I am being patient to myself that being unproductive and making mistakes are okay.
I still have a lot more affirmations to give to myself and that thought alone makes me glad because it makes me see all the goodness that I am made of. I really encourage you to affirm yourself or just learn to appreciate yourself even more because honestly, ***we rarely do it!*** I don't know why are we wired in a way that it's hard for us to see the goodness inside all of us because honestly, it's easier for me to see the good in someone else but having a hard time doing that for myself.
I know this pandemic has brought a lot to us, most of it we can't even take and many of us just wish it would go away. Day by day, I feel like things are getting worse and it easy to lose hope during these trying times. But let's affirm ourselves that we are stronger than anything the comes our way and if we think we're not, we have family and friends to support us through it!
I would really love to hear some of the affirmations to yourself, let's inspire each other an hopefully this had helped you more than it did to me.
See you around!
Lead image: Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@tiomp?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText https://unsplash.com/s/photos/affirmation?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
Life of an Auditor: Doctors of the Corporate World
Apparently, a lot of people know the word "auditor" but doesn't know what an auditor does or what this role entails. There's actually an inside joke and also a funny thing to talk about with my colleagues when we try and remember school elections. **Many would want to be the auditor because, as people would say it, auditors don't do anything** and just are "displays" in the school officers (how I wish this was true. HAHAHA) That's why I wanted to tell you more about what it means to be an auditor, what is our role and would probably start this series where I just basically write about what I do and spoiler alert! 50% of it is thinking about resigning! HAHAHAHA.
What is an auditor?
An ***auditor*** is a person authorized to review and verify the accuracy of financial records and ensure that companies comply with tax laws. They protect businesses from fraud, point out discrepancies in accounting methods and, on occasion, work on a consultancy basis, helping organizations to spot ways to boost operational efficiency. Auditors work in various capacities within different industries.
Source https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/auditor.asp
I know that definition has a lot of technical jargons but to put it simply, for general audit, when a company says in their financial statements or more simply, reports, that they have PHP 1,000,000 in the bank, we have to ensure that the company really have PHP 1,000,000 in the bank. This has the same concept with their inventories and receivables, as well. And when the company say, they only owe a bank or supplier PHP 10,000, we have to ensure that they are not hiding any liabilities from their part.
To put it more simpler, if *Ana says she has 10 cookies in her cookie jar*, *we have to ask Ana to give us her cookie jar and let us count it for ourselves.* Through then, we can make sure that Ana is telling the truth.
This is basically the simplest form of it and it just gets more and more complex.
And how I wish this is the case in real life, that we would only have to count cookies. HAHAHA. How I also wish I could it them while counting. We basically audit companies, and each company, like a person, is unique to its own. It has its own process, manuals and standards on how to do things and it definitely varies per company. Each company audit we conduct is like meeting a new person, you have to take your time and dig deep to truly know the company to make your audit more efficient and valuable.
Right now, I am an auditor in one of the Big 4 audit firms and I am based here in Manila. I can say that our job is really diverse, it has the same foundations but in applying it you really have to understand and the company you are auditing. You have to apply your analytical skills and adjust per company that you will audit.
Why do we do this and why people hire us?
An audit usually takes weeks or even months depending on the size of the company. After conducting all of the procedure we need to do, like checking hundreds of documents, going to warehouses to count their inventory, communicating with the banks to know their balance. We would have to furnish an opinion as to the truthfulness of their financial statements, this is called the... **"Audit Opinion"**. It's an opinion as to the fairness of the financial statement a company produces. *It's just a document saying that their financial statements are fairly presented and that the employees, owners, government and even the public can rely to it.*
But many of you might say, why do people spend sleepless nights and drink galloons of coffee just to produce an audit opinion. It's because financial statements is usually one of the most important thing a company produces for the following reasons, but not limited to:
It is a requirement by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), as a basis for taxes.
It is also a requirement of Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC) for companies to file their financial statements, not doing so will lead to, in extreme cases, company closure.
It serves as a basis for the analysis of the company performance in both present and future. This is usually used by management to determine trends and figure out ways on how to improve the business.
It can be useful for the public, especially if it is a listed company and can be used for their analysis on which stock to invest to.
As you can see, this financial statements are not just document with numbers and words. It tells the financial condition of the company and usually affects a lot of people or as we call them, stakeholders, so the fairness and truthfulness of it, is a must.
Our job is one of the most stressful jobs out there, we usually rush from deadline to deadline. This is the reason why auditors usually spends sleepless for months, can't live without coffee and usually are considered grumpy, due to the exhaustion from all the deadlines that we are meeting. We also use to render tons of overtime, **I remember filing 100 hours for a week**, which was alarming considering that a week only has 168 hours and a regular person need at least 6-8 hours of sleep.
Auditors are usually referred to as ***"the doctors of the corporate world"*** because most of the time, we are the one who discovers the errors in a company's process and we fix it with the company. We also tend to discover some frauds that prevents the company from a whole lot of legal cases and fines. But we must keep in mind that finding error and fraud is not our job, because apparently, many people think it is. Our job is just to make sure if what you are saying is true and in finding out if it's true, we discover those error and fraud, it's just a by-product of what we do but it's not out job.
I know this is a lot to take in and hopefully, you gain some insight on what an auditor is. I wish I could sum up everything in one article but that would be impossible to do. I just wrote this article so in your next class election, you would know what an auditor needs to do. HAHHAHAHAHA. But seriously, I just want people to know what an auditor do and the importance of them especially in the corporate world.
See you around! 🌤
Lead Image: Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@homajob?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText https://unsplash.com/s/photos/financial-statements?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
For more articles:
My College Journey https://read.cash/@deedum/my-college-journey-e5a201ba
My CPA Licensure Journey https://read.cash/@deedum/how-i-studied-for-the-licensure-exam-3663c37a
Financial Analysis: Is is really back to normal after Covid-19? https://read.cash/@deedum/financial-analysis-is-it-really-back-to-normal-after-covid-19-66283eda
An Extrovert in Quarantine https://read.cash/@deedum/an-extrovert-in-quarantine-e2ebe202
An Extrovert in Quarantine
It's been more than a year since my country, Philippines, had implemented community quarantine. There are varying stages of quarantine here, Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ), General Community Quarantine (GCQ) and Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ). ***CONFUSING, RIGHT?*** Don't worry, most of us don't know the difference either, but one thing's for sure, **we need to stay at home**. We are not allowed to go out except for necessities and if we do go out, we need to follow the safety protocols in place.
This could come off as a whiny post but I think I wanted to let people know the struggles of being an extrovert and not being able to go out, talk to people and just feel the sun shining on my skin. I guess it's a struggle many of us are not even aware of, and worst some people doesn't even acknowledge it.
To give you a background, I am one of the most extrovert person I know. Even way before high school, our classes was 7AM to 3PM. I usually leave our house as early as 6AM and go home normally around 6PM or sometimes, around 8PM-9PM. In college, I'd rather stay at someone else's house or in the mall rather than go home. Even now that I'm working, in the pre-pandemic times, I stay in the office so that I can have dinner with my colleagues. And I always say to my managers to send me out in fieldworks and fly me anywhere, so most of the time I am either in the client's premises and staying in different hotels for weeks and sometimes, even months.
It's not that I hate it at home because even when I am home, I usually bug people around. I'd go to my mom and just poke her or like talk to her. I'd go to my sisters and just annoy them. HAHAHAHA. I have a great relationship at home, ***it's just that being with lots of people rises my energy***. I think I'm also the most *"kaladkarin friend"* in our circle. A *kaladkarin friend* is the one who usually say yes to any plans someone has. I remember so many times where my friends would text me and be like "Dinner?" and after 30 minutes I'm at the meeting place. That's how extremely extrovert I am.
Initially, when the quarantine began, I was relieved because I can finally sleep and rest, more importantly I can do the stuffs I've been wanting to try! I did sewing, make up, and calligraphy. I finished all of the books in my to read list, watched all the movies and series I missed during board exam review. I even learned to cook some dishes like tteokbokki, shawarma, gimbap and some I don't even remember. I also started working out and exercising, all was going to well until problems started to arise.
During these times, both of my parents doesn't have a job, so basically I am the one supporting my family. In the first few months, it was bearable until I became overwhelmed with everything. Then, covid-19 claimed a family member, my favorite aunt, it was so sudden. Alongside the grief and sadness of losing a family member, financial expenses were also coming.
I'm the type of person to just easily find solutions to everything, I am a very hopeful person too, I guess? I usually just need a few moments to breathe and when I come back, I can pretty much conquer the world. But during this quarantine, it seems harder to face and solve any problems. That's when all of this unwanted feeling started to bubble up.
I started feeling trapped and wanting to go out even more. I felt suffocated being surrounded by the four walls of our house. It's getting harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning. I started missing and calling my friends, most times, I am crying to them. I wish that solved anything but it got worse, *I started having panic attacks frequently*. I remember being locked up in my room and just crying because I just can't bear it anymore. I remember even filing a sick leave because of my mental health issues, I literally have to hear myself breathing because I feel like sometimes I forget to breathe. I started being picky with foods too, it's harder and harder to eat food without feeling nauseated.
Some might say that I am just being an ungrateful, whiny b****. Like, I get them, I have a stable job, I'm at the comfort of my home and the only thing I am concerned of is going out while some people risk their lives just to earn money to be able to provide for their family. And no matter how many times I wanted to get rid of this feeling, I just can't. **It's not that I wanted to feel this.** I told you, I'm a very positive person but during this pandemic and to make it worse, lockdown. I just really can't pull myself up, I kept spiraling into this trapped and suffocated feeling.
Then, our company started this initiative where they provide free consultation with a psychologist, which I'm really grateful for. But first, I hesitated in going, no one even knew I booked an appointment, because most people think I'm a strong person and would never ever need one. I booked secretly and had a few sessions which really helped me a lot in understanding things.
Fortunately, I don't need any medical intervention yet. I was just having a hard time and along with other reasons, one of the most evident reason of feeling all of this is **I can't cope up with things.** Before, when I am having a hard time, I usually go out alone in the mall, visit some thrift shops, eat anything I want, go to department stores or even just bug of some friends. *I was stripped off of all my coping mechanisms and nothing could give me dopamine anymore and it was a constant battle from that point on.*
I started slowly by taking walks outside with our dogs and my siblings, eating outside even though it's quite dangerous. I even made the dumbest decision of having a massage even though it's close contact and might even result in me having Covid-19. I also said yes to every field work available just to get out and just feel released. Then I drained myself out and it just feels empty again.
I also started journaling and writing. As you can see, I was a user 9 months ago but I was just recently active. I am just trying this out as a coping mechanism and I don't know if it will work or if it's working. I am still on the process of building yet another set of coping mechanism and I don't know if something can ever replace my old coping mechanisms.
*This had been long but writing and reading it again made me realize how much I have grown over the past year and how much more I am to grow*. I am still struggling, still visiting a psychiatrist and still having a few panic attacks here and then, but I can now understand myself better. I also learned to be patient with myself, regarding healing and coping and to remind myself that it's okay to feel unwanted things.
So for all of you who are struggling, we don't ever know if it will get better, honestly. but I am just here to say to you that what you feel is perfectly fine. That making yourself suffer will not make the world suffer less. Don't invalidate what you feel just because you have a privilege that other people doesn't have. It's really okay to feel things we don't want to feel.
I hope this helps you more than it helped me.
See you around! 🌤
Lead image: Photo by Yasmina H on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@yasmina?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText https://unsplash.com/s/photos/lockdown?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
For my other articles, you can check it out here:
My College Journey https://read.cash/@deedum/my-college-journey-e5a201ba
My CPA Licensure Exam Journey https://read.cash/@deedum/how-i-studied-to-become-a-magna-cum-laude-5fbf84e1
Financial Analysis: Is it really back to normal after Covid-19 https://read.cash/@deedum/financial-analysis-is-it-really-back-to-normal-after-covid-19-66283eda
Financial Analysis: Is it really back to normal after Covid-19?
Disclaimer: This article is written with the circumstances that are happening in my country, the Philippines and this is my personal opinion and certainly not a financial advice but just a conversation starter.
After a year of lockdown and vaccines finally popping up, a lot of country have been "going back to normal", as they term it, like Israel, New Zealand and Australia. Almost everybody in my country is feeling the toll of being locked involuntarily at home for almost a year now and everybody just want to go back to their old lives where we can freely eat out, travel and just basically go out whenever we want to.
But we must remember, a lot can happen in a day, most certainly a year. We are in quarantine for more than a year now and if we're locked in our homes for that long, we might become a bit ignorant when we finally get the chance to get out. Along with all the health protocols that are in place and will probably stay for quite some time, Covid-19 have serious impact on the financial aspect or living expenses as well, and very rare that people recognizes this or even know this.
I thought of starting or sharing a conversation of what we may expect financially if things ever go back to normal since it's been a topic that I came across with at work. We were discussing of how things would be, if things would suddenly be okay and the pandemic would be gone in a snap. After discussing goals and plans and not a shocker but most of us would really get on a plane as soon as we can all go out! HAHAHAHA. We get to talk about how Covid-19 changes the way people spend over the past year and how would they spend it after the pandemic.
These are some of the things that we have discussed:
*Everyone will be shocked at how high prices would be.*
The latest inflation rate data available for the Philippines was released last February 2021, which was at 4.7%, the highest since the 4.4% recorded in January 2019. This is mainly caused by the increase in the pork prices and still expecting to rise up to 450 per kilo.
For full news article: https://www.rappler.com/business/inflation-rate-philippines-february-2021
You don't have to fully understand inflation to know that the prices of things are getting higher, especially necessities. We might not feel it because brands keep on giving sales for some items, because no one will buy their product if they won't put it on sale. Brands mainly do this to achieve breakeven. But if you take a deep dive, all of those items are unnecessary (let's be honest for discussion purposes, okay? You don't need another pair of shoes or another cute shirt) but the necessary ones keep on getting higher! Have you noticed a sale for alcohol? Face mask? Food in general? No. They just keep on getting higher.
Lately, when going to groceries I'm really shocked at how P2,000 (around $40) is not enough to buy even the bare necessities when before we can survive for 2 weeks on it. Even in the wet market, P1,000 was enough before to cover our whole weeks plan but now, we range for almost P3,000. That P3,000 budget before covers everything, we even had biscuits to bring to work and we all have packed lunch.
The most alarming thing for me is we have this concept of "pandemic naman eh" (we're in a pandemic) that we shrug this slow incremental prices. If we buy groceries and it's beyond the limit that we had before we have this thinking, oh it's the pandemic, it's okay for them to rise their prices because they're incurring extra costs during this pandemic. But believe it or not, most likely the prices will either go up or remain the same.
So, don't be surprised if students will ask for additional allowances once things go back to normal. Don't be surprised to if you're working and you would need to adjust your daily budget because most likely, when we get the chance to go out everyone will complain at how high living expenses would be. Along with our government debt that keeps piling ang piling up, I think we can expect a further inflation in the coming years.
Here is the bloomberg article on the expected higher inflation rate in the Philippines: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-05/philippine-inflation-quickens-further-amid-higher-food-costs
*People will spend more in leisure activities.*
This will not be a surprise, people will eat out in their favorite restaurants, buy the bag and shoes they always wanted to buy, get on a plane and just runaway. I believe that a lot of people will be spending in leisure activities once we finally get the chance to go out. I also like to think that there would also be discounts and sales offered by brands to entice people to buy these kind of products.
This is totally understandable because we were basically forced down to live in simpler ways during the pandemic. We don't eat out much, we just buy what we really need and we just don't spend money in unnecessary things because we really have no idea when will the pandemic ends. The last thing we need right now is somebody telling us to not spend our money in the activities we missed out during the quarantine. Again, I will reiterate, it's fine to do all of these things, it's our choice and most likely, I would do it too ! hehe. But what I am saying is that be weary of we spend our money.
I told you earlier that the unnecessary things will drop prices, because brands need to breakeven with their costs, they need to recover the cost they incurred for their product and they are willing to drop their prices to make it happen, with minimal or no profit at all. Yet the necessary products keep on rising in value because of the inflation and probably because of the limited supplies. We really need to think first before spending because we can really have a hard time if we don't plan out our expenses.
I really would love your thoughts about this and comment down if you have points that I have missed out.
I hope this helps you in any way it can!
See you around. 🌤
BCH: Building Communities day by day
For the past few days, I've been really busy, especially with my work. It has been days since I published my last article and I'm currently working on others too but I decided to put it aside and just get on with this one first because I think it's a story worth sharing. I hope you'll find inspiration from this as much as I do.
Aside from work, I have been really busy with a project I just organized impulsively, it didn't even have a name or I didn't even know how I would do it, I just decided that I wanted to this and I wanted to help. It's not really a huge deal and I didn't expected it to turn big, but it did!
It was on April 22, 2021, Thursday, that I have learned that a village near where I live has been burned to the ground because there had been fire. It's already summer in the Philippines and summer fires are pretty common here. I haven't been visiting my social media accounts, except probably noise.cash and read.cash, and when I opened my Facebook last Thursday, I saw a post that says my elementary classmate was one of the victims of the fire.
For the full news cover of Philippine Star: https://www.facebook.com/PhilippineSTAR/posts/2209835982503404
I have been seeing it a lot in social media where they would open donation drives and I impulsively thought of organizing one for the victims of the fire because some of them I knew personally. I opened a new wallet and used it as the wallet from my noise.cash earnings and transferred my subsequent read.cash earnings to that wallet.
After that, I quite laughed at myself, because I didn't even contacted her before organizing everything, probably due to the rush of the emotions and as I am quite really busy with work too, I asked for her permission to share her post but I didn't really say that it would amount to anything because honestly, I don't even know if someone would donate and if I can earn a huge amount of money and I didn't want her to expect anything.
noise.cash post:https://noise.cash/post/lkrpmg3w
I am quite new to noise.cash, just been there for a month and in read.cash, I've been very inactive. In both platforms, I didn't have many subscribers (200+ in noise.cash and 6 in read.cash, meeeeh) and it didn't really matter much to me but for this project, I just wished I did, so many people would see my posts about the fire incident. I usually earn a dollar in noise.cash and I'm saving it for my "dollar a day" challenge, so I was just expecting around 8-10 dollars, to be honest. Because that's what pretty much I earn from both of this platforms, alongside stopping my dollar a day challenge for a few days. I even said to myself, maybe I could match it up from my savings so that we could donate a higher amount.
After I made the noise about the fire, I just went on and eat lunch. I also finished some work when my boss texted and since I'm on my phone already, I checked my bitcoin.com wallet, which is an unconscious thing I do most of my day. I was so shocked and loss for words, in a span of 3 hours (11:44 AM to 14:46 PM), we were able to get a whopping almost $22, which is around PHP1,ooo.
I was amazed at how people were really wanting to help, some even asking directly for my BCH wallet because some of them doesn't have the free tips feature because of the new updates. A lot of people was renoising it too, to spread awareness and up to this date, April 25, 2021, it has reached a total of 30 renoise and $7.00 tip which was so shocking for me because I never expected it to be this big. And I still posted contents the same way I did before, tried to write read.cash articles and giving updates for this project. But a lot of people have donated, not just their free tips but from their own money as well.
After 3 days of putting all of the BCH that goes through my wallet we were able to collect a total of almost $30 or almost $1,500 and it's really amazing. Though, I can say that the dip really had an impact for the amount that we had collected, you know, with the red market lately.
I know we can call it project Hope because I wanted to give hope to the fire victims that there will always be help, but I was amazed that I think *I'm even more inspired to see how collective efforts can really go a long way.* I mean, $30 is not much for some, but a lot of people here at noise.cash and read.cash don't have that much to begin with. Imagine how a collective effort of just putting $.01 dollars into someone's wallet can amount into $30 in just 3 days. Mind-blowing.
***I just really wanted to share this story and thank all of you for being part of it, whether renoising, replying, giving free tips and for giving your own earnings.*** I appreciate each and every one of you. I also want to thank my sister @Hanzell for supporting and inspiring me to this, she also recently made her own donation drive for stray pets, you can check it out! ***I also wanted to thank the creators and the people behind noise.cash and read.cash,*** they probably wouldn't know that something like this is happening but this was also made through those people.
***I also wanted to share how crypto, specifically BCH for this project, had been helping a lot of people and not just individuals anymore but going on a larger scale, the community.*** I hope and pray that God and if you don't believe in God, the universe or just somebody you want to believe in, would return this to you 100000000 folds.
This really opened my mind that there is still good in the world. Despite all of the happenings and no matter how tragic it is for us right now, there will always be a brighter side, if we wait and hold on for it.
Just always remember this, ***"what if the miracle you are waiting for is also waiting for you?"***
See you around! 🌤
The day of the CPA Licensure Exam
This is the last part of the 3-part series on how I achieved my ultimate goal of becoming a Certified Public Accountant in the Philippines.
This has become a 3-part series because I wanted to emphasize that studying for college and board exams are two different things and as per my experience, it both requires a different mindset.
Part 3: Taking the Licensure Examination
The night before the licensure exams usually varies per person and writing this I can see a movie scene that's passing from window to window showing how diverse every student is. Some can't sleep because of the anxiety of what will happen tomorrow, others are already peacefully sleeping because either they wanted the rest for tomorrow's exam or they already gave up. But there will always be some who still want to cram up until morning to absorb as much as they can before the exam.
As for me, I remember sleeping at 9 to 10 pm because as I've said in my previous articles my day usually takes place between 6 am to 10 pm. This was one of the tips my professor gave me to condition your mind to be able to think during the board exam hours. The board exam hours for the CPA Licensure Exams is usually 8 am to 4 pm, so I patterned my study plan there. I need to be able to train my mind to think and solve during those hours. It helped a lot because, during the board exam, I was awake and alert. I can't speak for the night owls but for me, I didn't adjust much.
I woke up as early as 5 am because the last thing you need to do is be late. ***NEVER BE LATE, okay?*** It's not only that you'll have administration problems, but *you need time to rest and internalize before you start the exams*. I have taken dozens of exams where I felt that my life depended on it and when I enter the room, I don't bring anything. I just sit, meditate, and pray. My prayer would always be the same, ever since college, I don't pray to pass the exams. *I pray that God will give me and my classmates the best condition or version of ourselves.* I like to think that I always do my best and my best is enough, I just need to be in my best condition. In this way, if I don't pass, I know that I can improve and work on it, to be a better version of myself.
On the day of the exam, my father accompanied me to the designated school, we just ride public transportation. Before entering the school, I already bought my lunch, so that I don't have to go out during lunch break plus the queue during lunch would be so long. Of course, I bought my ultimate comfort food, Jollibee! Just their Spaghetti and spicy Chickenjoy make my day!
In every exam I took in college, whenever I received the examination paper, I don't look at it. I just put it on my table close my eyes and just breathe for a moment. This is so nerve-wracking because you get to hear the reaction of your seatmates while you sit there breathing. After 30 seconds to a minute, I open my eyes, fix my pen and calculator and I tell myself ***"Let's conquer the world!"*** while gripping hard on my pen and doing the fighting gesture in k-dramas, I don't know why I always say that to myself but whenever I do, I feel my energy rising and I feel like I can do anything and can actually conquer the world in my own little way.
While going through the exam, I just answer chronologically, if I had a difficult time with a certain question, I'll skip it and save it for the end (just make sure to not skip everything, okay? lol) When I finish everything, I don't pass it immediately, I make sure that I maximize the time, there were subjects in the board where I answered for almost 3-4 times, just to make sure I wrote and shaded the correct answer.
After the exam, I donated everything that's with me. My pencil, sharpener, eraser plastic envelope, I even gave away my calculator to another student because I said to myself, I won't take the board exam ever again. I trusted myself and I know I did my best. A bit bold to be honest but just practicing law of attraction! A lot of people will talk about the exams and in this modern age, there were tons of group chats discussing questions and answers, for me I didn't open any of them because I think it would just cause me anxiety and I didn't need more of that.
Taking the exam is **nerve-wracking** but waiting for the result of the exam is ***NERVE-WRACKING!!!*** It was intense and for us, we had to wait for a week and it was the longest week of my life. I tried my best to clear my mind of it, I hang out with friends, go to places that I love, do the things I love and I just made myself busy to forget that I am waiting for the results.
On the day of the results, I was not opening my data or my wifi, me and my friends had an agreement that we wouldn't check our name on the list of passers and we'll just wait for a call or a text saying that we passed. My father noticed how anxious I was and we decided to watch a movie with my whole family! I remember we watched Joker and to be honest, I didn't remember anything except for the staircase part. After that, my mind is filled with anxious thoughts.
After going home, the result is still not out, which is a bit disappointing because we expected the result in the morning. The result was released late at night, around 9-11 pm, and it was true that I didn't open my phone, I was just on my MP3 player playing some songs when my aunt called me saying I passed before I can even check it out my cousins and siblings are already rushing to tell me I passed the exam. It was a surreal moment, I thought it would be like a firework moment, where everyone is shouting and celebrating but it's more of hugs, smiles, light taps, and just knowing that your family and friends are proud of you. That made my journey so worth it.
For all the future CPAs reading this, it will be a tough journey. A lot of sacrifices would have to be made for our profession but after all of that, I am now helping my family with the expenses, I can inspire people that if I can do it, you can too and those things made my journey worthwhile.
For my college journey: https://read.cash/@deedum/my-college-journey-e5a201ba
For my CPA Licensure Exam Journey: https://read.cash/@deedum/how-i-studied-to-become-a-magna-cum-laude-5fbf84e1
See you around! 🌤
Rooting for you, future CPA! 💕
Am I a fool?
Let's take a break from all the seriousness that I've been writing lately, let's try and look back. 😂
I was talking to my high school friends the other day when suddenly, we started grabbing our yearbooks and starting reminiscing about our high school life. We talked about how everything is going for everybody, how's everyone's life had been. Then, slowly we were looking back on where we usually eat whenever class was over, our crazy adventures ang school projects. Going deeper and deeper, then suddenly we were talking about our high school crushes.
Back then, I had some self-esteem issues, not much to the point that it's damaging but I know I had some of it because I had a crush on the school's heartthrob and we all know what happened, he had a crush on the school's heartthrob too.
He was my classmate so I really get to talk to him and it pains me that he doesn't like me back so I wrote a series of poem about him and when we were talking about him, I remembered all of my poems and thought of sharing it to all of you.
So this poem is basically something that I have written for my unrequited high school crush. When I was reading it, I can feel the pain that I've gone through. To be honest, I was having goosebumps for how cringey it is. But it made me realize that when we're young, everything feels like the end of the world, if your crush doesn't like you back. I'm also quite amazed at how the burning desire for love is so strong, so young and so naive.
The poem is titled "Am I fool?" and here it goes:
*Am I a fool?*
To have loved you ever since I saw you.
*Am I a fool?*
To still love you even though you didn't know I exist.
*Am I fool?*
To continue loving you without the assurance of you loving me back.
*Am I a fool?*
To still smile in front of you while what you ever did was leave me in pain.
*Am I fool?*
To think of you all day while you're thinking of another.
***Yes, maybe I'm a fool.***
***Because all I ever did was to love someone that will never love me back.***
I just wrote it as it is, so if it does have grammatical errors excuse my old self for it. I just want it to be the original and first version of the poem, I think it's more memorable that way.
But now that I grown up, if you were to ask me if I would date him now, I probably won't because we're just not compatible and I don't think we are for each other. And young people often forget that part, it's easy to like someone but when having a relationship I think compatibility is really a thing to consider, not it a way that you have to like whatever the other person likes. It's just that you need to have that "click" and looking back I realized we didn't have it and it's fine. I am yet to discover who I will click with and that excites me!
If you want to know more about my college journey, read here:
My college journey: https://read.cash/@deedum/my-college-journey-e5a201ba
How I studied to pass the CPA Licensure Exams: https://read.cash/@deedum/how-i-studied-to-become-a-magna-cum-laude-5fbf84e1
See you around! 🌤
How I studied for the Licensure Exam
This is the second article of a 3-part series on how I achieved my ultimate goal of becoming a Certified Public Accountant in the Philippines.
This has become a 3-part series because I wanted to emphasize that studying for college and board exams are two different things and as per my experience, it both requires a different mindset.
Part 2: Preparing for the Licensure Exams
I honestly don't know where to begin because after graduation days are passing by so fast yet the hours were excruciating slow during the review. For CPAs, we usually spend 5 months of review and a 3-day exams with 2 subjects each day.
1. Set an expectation for yourself
This is one of the most important part before starting the review for the board exams. I always tell myself that no matter what happens on the day of the board exam "manghuhula ka pa din" (you'll still have to guess some questions) because honestly you really can't know everything. And believe me, I tried my hardest to do it but in the end, still circled back to it.
So before starting your review talk to yourself and ask yourself this question:
What's the subject that you always avoid because it's the most difficult thing in the world?
What's the subject that even with eyes closed, you can answer everything?
Are your basic foundations for the subjects generally okay or does it needs an overall improvement?
You need to be able to assess yourself honestly, admit if you have difficulties, and accept if you can ace a subject, through that you can be able to set an expectation for yourself during the review. It helps if you can't easily keep up with your friends or classmate during review or even when with the results of pre-boards, it makes it easier for you to cope up because you recognize that you have difficulties with a certain subject. You know where to focus on and you can build a schedule or a learning plan around it. This way you became proactive instead of worrying if you will fail a subject because it's so damn hard, you admit that you're not good with it, move forward, and improve.
This can also make it easier for you to know the level of focus that you have to give for the review. Like, if you'll have a job, a relationship, rent a dorm, hang out with friends, and many more. You have to set this at the beginning of the review so that it will be easier for you to stay focused on your schedule or plan.
2. Set an expectation for your parents, friends and family.
Most people forget this part, some create an expectation for themselves but rarely do I see people creating expectations for their family and friends, especially parents. If you were to review full time and don't have a job, your parents can expect from you since they will still be providing everything for your review. And we already heard how thousands of people didn't pass the licensure exams due to the heavy pressure, mostly imposed by their parents. It would be a great help for your mental health to just say to your parents that you will try your best but don't expect much because we all know most of the time, the expectations don't help.
We should not forget that during review most likely your routines will change and you need to set an expectation for that too. Some examples of it are:
You might end up staying later or waking up earlier
You might not get out of your room or the place you study at for long periods of hours and just leave your study desk for food and bathroom breaks
You might end up eating more because as my sister said, the more you think, the more it makes you hungry
You might deactivate your social media sites so you can focus more, so your friends can't easily contact you
You might end up missing hangout with friends or your significant others
You might miss family occasions
You might be more emotional
You might need a quiet environment
You might end up staying later or waking up earlier
You might not get out of your room or the place you study at for long periods of hours and just leave your study desk for food and bathroom breaks
You might end up eating more because as my sister said, the more you think, the more it makes you hungry
You might deactivate your social media sites so you can focus more, so your friends can't easily contact you
You might end up missing hang out with friends or your significant others
You might miss family occasions
You might be more emotional
You might need a quiet environment
I'm not saying that you'll do all of these, again it boils down to the expectation that you will set for yourself but after creating an expectation for yourself, you should tell them to the people close to you because, at the end of the day, you're all aiming for you to pass the exams and honestly, they'll do their best to support you for it. Then, let them negotiate and compromise for the expectations you set out for them, some might be a bit harsh and in other areas, they can give out more. Communicating with everyone will help you massively during the review. Trust me.
3. Choose your study plan
After creating an expectation for yourself and everyone else, you have to create a study plan or a goal. I can't speak for everyone but for me, I poured my heart out during the 5 months review for the CPA Licensure Exam, so some of you might think that it's a bit extreme. Again, I did aim to top the board exam and it's an expectation I set out for myself.
My study habit back then was to wake up at 6 AM, eat, take a shower and check out Twitter and Messenger up until 7 AM. At 7 AM, I turn on a focus app, which prevents me from opening other apps on my phone for a designated time, I use tide and forest and proceed to study the designated subject for the day.
I stop at 12 nn to eat and while eating, I watch Youtube videos, mainly Bretman Rock's or Mimiyuh's, on random days I put on some Ted Talks too. After that, I usually take a nap for 30 minutes, and when I wake up around 1 pm or 1:30 pm because I always believe that studying after waking up is one of the best times for me plus I feel like my brain is going through a reboot while I sleep.
I change into a different subject. I usually have nuts beside me, I like to take down notes and I have my highlight system. I take another rest at 5:00 pm because my other sisters are coming home from their schools and usually they're quite noisy, and I can't study with much noise. I just rest and wait it out for dinner, I usually take a shower again and eat dinner, then I resume around 8 pm up until 10 pm or 11 pm, it depends if I need to catch up on a subject. Then I repeat that routine all over again up until the board exams came.
I enrolled in a review school and proceeded with the weekend schedule because I like it better when I have more control over my schedule. I rarely hang out with friends and to be honest, my rest days were the time when I went to review classes because I get to see my friends and we usually eat out. I have missed dozens of family occasions because my review school was on weekend and it's hard to miss out on a schedule. I never deactivated any social media but I deleted all my apps and access everything through the browser.
Making your study plan will take some time, most of the structure of it came from the way I studied in college but to be honest, the way I studied during the review was way more intense and more mature than I did in college.
Licensure exams will require a lot of sacrifices, not just from you but for a lot of people. It's a dreadful ride and I wish people didn't have to go through it. But after the board exams, you will realize how much it made you grow as an individual.
Again, I hope you got something from this.
See you around!
Check my college journey here: https://read.cash/@deedum/my-college-journey-e5a201ba
Check out the first part (surviving college) here: https://read.cash/@deedum/how-i-studied-to-become-a-magna-cum-laude-5fbf84e1
How I studied to become a Magna Cum Laude
This is a first of a 3-part series on how I achieved my ultimate goal of becoming a Certified Public Accountant in the Philippines.
This has become a 3-part series because I wanted to emphasize that studying for college and board exams are two different things and as per my experience, it both requires a different mindset.
Part 1: Surviving college
Casually, I am sometimes invited to some schools or organizations to talk about how I studied to be able to graduate with Latin Honors and eventually, pass the Licensure Exams. I always try to look back at how I studied because back then, all I wanted was to graduate on time and not have any backlogs because as they say, once you graduate your life will begin and you'll be able to achieve the things you always wanted.
But first, how did I become a Magna Cum Laude?
To be honest when I entered college, I never in my dreams that I thought I will graduate with honors. But if you read my previous article, you will know that I am from PUP and in PUP *we need to have a grade of 2.0* *and above* to be able to continue with the accountancy program. The fear of shifting courses and transferring schools is my motivation to achieve those grades, frankly, it's not a good one but it worked. I just can't shift back then because I really love accountancy and I always wanted to finish what I started and I just can't easily change schools because back then we only had to pay PHP 1,000 or around $20 and if I transfer I need to go to a private school which usually ranges from PHP 40,000 - 60, 000 ($800 - 1,200).
So to be honest, this policy kept my grades high without me wanting it to happen. *It was a tough obstacle but it became a blessing in disguise.* When I was upcoming 4th year, my professor came to me saying that I'm one of the few that still have the grades to graduate with Latin Honors, he made me compute my previous grades and made me set my target grades for the next academic year. I entered 4th year with a clear goal in mind, that I have to achieve this grade or higher, nothing else.
So how did I study for it?
1. Communicate with yourself
I wish I learned this sooner or somebody else told me this because it's such a mindset shifter. Let me tell you again, **YOU SHOULD COMMUNICATE WITH YOURSELF,** I hope I got that emphasized already. There are billions of ways to study and train your brain like Pomodoro, waking up at 4 AM, drinking coffee, taking down notes, this list could go on and there are thousands of youtube videos on how to study well but rarely I see people saying and acknowledging that *we are different individuals* and because of that we require different approaches on how we learn things. You cannot put everybody else in a cutter and force them to study a certain way, you just can't. After realizing this, I rewatched some youtube videos and just picked out what's applicable for me and I encourage you to do the same for every youtube video and even in this article. encourage you to do the same for every youtube video and even in this article.
You should be able to ask yourself and answer for yourself too on how you best learn, some examples are:
are you more active at night or in the morning?
do you like to drink coffee, tea or not fond of these drinks?
do you prefer visual cues or reading?
do you prefer listening or writing?
do you need something to condition yourself before studying?
This list could go on but hopefully, you got the gist of it.
As for me, I'm a morning person way back in college, if I had no classes, I wake up at 6 AM and sleep around 10-11 PM and everyone else was staying up until 4 AM and usually wakes up at 1 PM. I always feel that I don't put in the effort they put in just because I don't stay up late. But as time goes by I realized, it works for them but not for me, so just imagine if I forced myself to stay up until 3 AM or so even though I am not wired that way will I have ever achieved my goal? Probably, we don't know that but one thing I know is it made things easier.
Note that this process usually takes time and a lot of effort before you can fully know what your preferences are.
2. Set your goals
We've all heard this a million times, I know, but hear me out. **You need to know your goals for you to know the effort you need to put into your school.** Again, you can only do this if you communicate with yourself. I read this somewhere and I never forgot it ever since, **"Don't pray for a 10 and work for an 8"**. If you're not religious, it still applies, we shouldn't dream of something and not match up the effort we put into it.
To expound it further, some people just want to graduate and that's fine. Some people want to have Latin Honors, still fine. Some people don't want to go to school, to be honest, it's still fine. *What's not fine is wanting something and not putting in the same effort that it requires.*
For me, in my 4th year, I wanted to graduate with Latin honors and I worked 100 x harder for it. But some of the classmates just wanted to graduate so they allocate some of their time to other things like job, significant others, friends, and family but for me, I have to give family time, friends time, I never had a boyfriend or a job, did they put less effort into it? No, they just exerted the effort required for their goals, the same thing I did with mine.
3. Enjoy the process
I think many of us make college more difficult because we try to resist it. For me, I fell in love with my course, along with the complexity and analysis behind it. I know not all of us are the given privilege to pursue what we wanted but that doesn't mean we need to resent the course or program that we have taken. Even if you cannot fall in love with the subject itself, find great friends and professors, enjoy your college life and just take at the moment because it will never happen again.
I always say to myself that it's our responsibility to romanticize our lives and I did that to my college life even though it's one of the most stressful parts of my life.
I joined quiz bees and competitions way back in college even though most of them, I didn't win. I managed to win one though, a quiz bee sponsored by one of the Big 4 firms - SGV
I also met the most amazing circle of friends that I have in my life in college and our bonding? Coffee and Food! We usually dine out whenever we finished final exams and just laugh it all out and believe me, meeting friends is part of the process too.
And above all, I appreciate the growth while taking this course has been massive for me. I think I became more organized and compliant about things. There had been a lot of takeaways in college not just the technical ones.
I know this is not the most direct article on how to study for college because there already thousands of it, I just really want students to know that college is a self-discovery process and you should enjoy it as much as you can. And ***the best study habit that you can have is the one that you build by learning more about yourself.***
For the subsequent part of this article, you can read here,
How I studied for the Licensure Exams: https://read.cash/@deedum/how-i-studied-for-the-licensure-exam-3c9ff40d
I hope you got something from this.
See you around!
My College Journey
I graduated from Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) and passed the CPA Licensure Exam (CPALE) both in 2019 when I was just 20 years old, and this is the story of how my life gets f*****.
Clueless Beginning
First of all, I chose accountancy as pre-law because being an Aries, I love arguments and more so love it when I win. But before applying to any schools, I remember the time when Pope Francis came here to the Philippines, and our whole family went out to see him. When I saw him, I prayed with my whole heart that God will place me to a good school to pursue and luckily, finish accountancy. Fortunately, I did pass the entrance exam and was qualified to take up accountancy in PUP which is one of the hardest courses to get into because the standards are pretty high. You have to achieve a certain level of scores, one of the highest, and should have a high grade way back in high school.
At that moment she knew, she f***** up
On our first day, the administrator explained the policy in going through the Accountancy program. It was only then said to us that we have to maintain a grade of 2.0 for all the major subjects that we have or as we call the "dos policy" and if we don't achieve this grade, we have to pass a qualifying exam to continue with the program. If we don't also pass the qualifying exam, the only choice was to either shift course or transfer school. We also learned that we will be taking a whopping 29 units per semester for the rest of our years in college. Alongside it is that we have to take a 9 unit summer class every summer vacation. It was a shocker for all of us and I remember that from that moment on, we feel like our future is uncertain. Luckily, one of my classmates was a classmate from my high school so freshmen paranoia is not really much and I made great friends along the way.
Accepting that all things are f*****
In my 1st year and 2nd year, it was really stressful because, alongside the accounting majors that we had, we also had Math and Law subjects which are way too hard. We also lost some classmates due to the dos policy which was sad because it reminds us how a quiz, presentation, or exam can change someone's life so fast. In the 3rd year, we had Law and Taxations subjects which are to die for. These are the times when I met coffee and sleepless nights, the times when even though you study so hard, it will never be enough and we cannot just easily give up because our families are depending on us.
Things get more f***** up
In our 4th year, we had some internships which is really a great time since we got a taste of what we will do when we graduate. We also had feasibility studies which is a subject where you and your friends basically use school to do overnights.
But in the last semester, this is when the world stopped for most of us. We had to go through 8 subjects and each subject would have 3 evaluation exams to prepare us for the upcoming board exams. So all in all, we had to take 24 evaluation exams starting January to March, 8 exams per month. Most of us sacrificed a lot for these evaluation exams, I rarely go out with friends, I even miss out on family occasions, just so that I can use the extra time for review or sleep. This is the time where we just go from school to home and home to school. It almost felt like we were robots and that we were trapped and the only way to get out was to graduate.
Things don't get better......
Luckily, I passed all the exams and was able to graduate on time. I wish it was that happy ending but in our class, we were 45 and only 22 get to graduate, only half of the class gets to graduate. It was sad, leaving friends behind but that's a sad reality, we sometimes outgrow people even though we don't want to.
My Licensure exam journey is for another story, it's another hell of a ride and I just wanted to publish this to let people know the pressure of being a student, accountancy or not, and if all of our learnings are really relevant to the real world, especially now in an online class. Lately I've been thinking if all of our sacrifices and hard work are really worth it and looking back, I have to reminisce all the things we have to go through just to achieve those 3 letters (CPA) alongside our name.
So again, I graduated from Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) and passed the CPA Licensure Exam both in the year 2019 when I was just 20 years old, and this is the story of how my life gets fucked.
Why did I revive my read.cash account?
If you visit my profile it would say there that I had this account for almost 9 months now. My sister encouraged me to write here since it gives you money and the community is great and accepting. At that time, I didn’t know what to write about so I stayed for a few days and basically dumped this account.
After a few months of quarantine, it had been a roller coaster. I had to deal with a lot of things, I guess we all did, because of that I started my journal and fell in love with writing again, which I did a long time ago when work and school are not that draining. Writing helped me cleared my thoughts and understand more of myself. Then, I started noise.cash and slowly share my thoughts and pictures, mostly, out there.
I’m trying again to share my thoughts to the world again and I’ll probably write about my life experiences and hopefully you gain something from it, but who knows, I’m pretty random itself.
And as for myself, I’m a 22-year old auditor based in the Philippines, I became a CPA at the age of 20, one of the proudest achievement I got! I’m a pretty random person and I like adventures and travel, an extremely extrovert person too, I got that from being an Aries. I hope my future stories inspires you.
Thank you for reading, have a great day.
See you around 🌤
Hi! I'm a CPA in practice, if you have business related queries or concerns, I would like to create articles about it.
Hit me up with your questions.
Thank you very much!
@deedum
