Assessment #1 – Step #1

Step #1- Introduction and Chapter 1

This first week for me has been a rollercoaster of emotions. When I first got my acceptance letter into CQUniversity I was shocked, scared and so excited! Considering I had never finished high school and never knew what I wanted to be when I “grow up” I honestly didn’t think I had a chance at being a distance ed student at 34. I was a young mum at 17, raised 3 of my siblings then to have another child at 30, finally get married and buy our second home.

My husband and I have worked our butts off trying to and get ahead in this thing we call “life”, doing the best we can while he has worked as a FIFO truck driver in the mines while I have been working retail in our local shopping centre for the past 13 years. We have done everything back to front when it comes to the expectations of how we “should grow up” and have both had colourful childhoods so the struggle was real trying to find our way and also take time to reflect and appreciate all the beautiful things we have made for ourselves.

I have always been that person that likes to help others and put everyone else before myself so when I was approached by my now employer to join her team at Catalyst Accounting & Tax (she was impressed on how I presented my husband tax work two years prior), I was flattered and terrified! I had no experience with numbers! Sure, I can talk my way out of anything but to sit and stare at numbers all day made we want to vomit. BUT I so like a challenge and figured out I actually LOVE my job! I love to be organised and have structure and I love numbers! I am a little OCD in the way I work, so I slipped into my role quite easily and thought “I think it’s time I started my career!” I finally figured out what I wanted to do and now I am on my way to achieving this goal.

So here I am! Putting myself first and struggling to know how and where to start. I have already learnt while I juggle a teenager, a 5-year-old going on 15, working fulltime and managing a household, I have had to cut back on a few social activities to make time. So, I was pleased to realise I had picked the best subject to start my studies! Its all about how to learn the right way and actually retain information by applying it to my life experiences and digging deeper into what I read, rather than just copying and pasting. I may be a little slow at submitting everything this week and I am nervous for people to read my work but I will do my absolute best and will continue to learn how to prioritise my work, family and studies so I can sleep a little more and enjoy myself!

My first initial thoughts on Peerwise was that I was a little nervous on whether my questions would be good enough or hard enough or will I even think of something to write! But after seeing
what a great tool for communication it was, I got onto the addicted bandwagon. I’m loving the questions, and some of them were questions I couldn’t answer, which then encouraged me to go
back and read something that I obviously hadn’t learnt the “right” way. I also was relieved that I wasn’t the only one, so that put my mind at ease. I think I put so much pressure on myself to succeed,
thinking that my age was a barrier, but in reality, I am just as capable as anyone else and knowing that there is help there and having the ability to easily ask for it is comforting.

I have to admit, I read the Introduction three times! This set off my alarm bells. The fact that I am reaching the end of the week and still have so much to do put me in the “people who do not do well” category, so this is definitely somewhere I need to work on. My time management. While I say that, I can then relate to the quote by Richard Branson, “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” This quote was meant for me! I then go on to read about learning and Martin said, “things that we have ‘apparently’ learnt are quickly lost”, due to a habit I and many of us are guilty of – Rote Learning.

What do you think learning is? When I first answered this question before reading the introduction and chapter 1, my answer was number one of the six ways we can think learning is. In my work and life experience, I have been ‘imitation learning’. My thoughts were that the quicker you read and implement, the quicker the job gets done, so I have always been a note writer. I literally have sticky notes all around my work desk at work, and after reading this chapter I realise I have formed this habit, so I don’t have to learn properly. I thought that I was saving myself time, but in reality, I have been making things more difficult. If I had just taken the time to learn the right way in the first place, I would never have to stop, find the right note and so on. I can already see myself implementing change in the way that I learn from now on, not only for my benefit in my work life but also to teach my children and to use in my personal life.

What is accounting? I know I still have a lot to learn and I am excited to learn more about how I can answer this question, but my thoughts on accounting after reading the chapter are that it’s not just about the numbers. To me accounting is about the business, communication, understanding how the business works and the fundamentals. In my current job, we are majority cloud-based accountants, so I am getting quite familiar with using Xero and Hubdoc as the main software and applications we use. I am still amazed at how far we have come with technology. The fact that we have clients that are on the road all the time in their jobs that can take photos of receipts and bills, which then get uploaded into an app that I have access to at work to recode to the accounts that they belong to. I can ensure the business and personal expenses are separated and also reconcile against their bank feed which uploads automatically in the software. It is so rewarding for me to know that my job helps these hard-working clients, that are away from their families, find more time now in their days to make plans, go on holidays and enjoy their lives. All because we can use technology. Wherever we are and whenever we get a spare moment.

I am happy to be already learning about the five elements of accounting. In my role, because I am still relatively new, I can already see the benefits of knowing what these elements are. Also knowing the difference between small businesses, partnerships, companies and trusts, can only help me to understand more at work and maybe stop me from annoying my boss Jane all the time with my questions. (just kidding! A silly question is a question you don’t ask!)

I thought that after all the years that have passed since I finished school, I had lost the excitement of learning, and I am pleased to say that even after a week of stress and worry (and maybe one dummy spit), I am so excited to be on this journey. Bring on the new week!