27/365 - No pride when learning

In early 2013 I enrolled in a course and I started going to classes three days a week, the other four I was working.  

I am not sure how they are viewed now, but ACCA qualifications were at the time very popular and I thought they would help me build my career.

I paid in full and in advance for all the modules. Big mistake!

Firstly, I did not factor in; a pregnancy, the English economical terminology that I had to get used to or that this is a completely different system to the Romanian one.

Secondly, I was being stubborn! I thought that that was the normal path I should take and was ignoring that I did not see myself in an office - I had tried it.

When the pregnancy sickness kicked in I lost five kilograms in a month and felt nauseous for seven months.

I got to five qualifications when I stopped and my biggest lesson did not come from the money I lost or from the revelation that I will not have a career in accounting. It came from the understanding that sometimes the shortest path is not the one that you know and that education must be approached with humbleness.

I was getting ready for an exam and had been attending every single class, but I was still in a complete haze, the syllabus was huge. I was trying constantly to apply, translate, relate to the information I knew from school, but it was all gibberish.     

I arrogantly lost months thinking that I know this stuff, I learned it once, it will make sense at one point. 

I had some tough exams in my life, but I will never forget that I made things so much harder for myself. To make up for that mistake, I started from scratch and studied 13-16 hours a day for two weeks to pass it. Not unusual for a student, but the pregnancy made that period awful.

Now, when I start any course I want to be treated like a beginner and I make sure I say that I want to start from zero! If I am better than that so be it, but I never want to repeat this mistake.

Being a beginner is great, plus people are so much kinder when they think you have never done this before!

Any course, any new career - you can do it! What if you fail? You will be fine, set your priorities straight and try, try again! 

You got this!