• Unenthusiastic Expedition Turns Out to Be a Gold Mine

    Tuesday October 26, on a brisk afternoon and of all places college is not where I wanted to be, but life is life. My flex class for English was to meet at 2:00pm today in preparation for our first essay, a narrative on our personal experience in the campus library; needless to say, a paper I was not prepared to write. Paradise Valley Community College had much to offer in the Learning Support Center; tutors aiding students with class work , a computer commons, even vacant rooms for club meetings upon request, and of course the Library.
    The only problem I have is I've never actually been in the library long enough to write anything even remotely interesting about it. Now, it’s not that I hated the joys of reading or that I was turned away by the musty smell of old book binders; a busy school schedule keeping me tired and drained was always the catalyst for my extracurricular activities or intellectual pursuits. Still, this paper needed to be started and finished within the same day; no beating around the bush this time; it had to be done. So with what little energy and mental stamina I could muster, trudging in front of the circulation desk, I checked myself in and started my undesired expedition to finish this stupid paper.
    At first, I was uninterested, even unmotivated to search for “something we found special to write about” as the written assignment entailed. There were a few books that caught my attention, though, while I was strolling through General Collections; one in particular, Ayn Rand’s Anthem, was a book I had heard about. The concept of egotistical ethics was a topic I had often found myself drawn to and no other book in historic literature embodied such a philosophy. She made it clear to her readers her Idea of radical individualism against an era of growing collectivist thought. She was quoted saying of her book, "It was to be a play about a collectivist society of the future in which they lost the word 'I.' They were all calling each other we and it was worked out as much more of a story" ( Qtd. in Peikoff). Contemplating on whether or not I would read one of Ayn’s greatest novels and using it for my cited source, I decided against it, at least until I browsed around some more. In the Popular Movies section, in bold-red letters was a film titled 1776. Being the patriotic nut that I am, anything about America’s revolutionary war was a sure winner in my book. The film in question, however, was a god awful adaption of some award winning Broadway musical, yeah... not my cup of tea. The Buxton Art Donation gave off a tribal vibe with a collection of art influenced from native American to Asian cultures. The clay and watercolor sculptures of three Cochiti women with children in their laps jumped out at me the most. It was titled The Storytellers by the artist Helen Cordero, I tried to find more of her work but couldn’t .In the Leisure Reading corner of the library where a couple of graphic novels I figured I might read some time. A few, were mangas-Japanese comics- one of which, 3X3 EYES, I had browsed through in another the public library downtown a few months ago. Scary comic with a scary story, made feel like I would, "Rot in hell" (Takada n.p.)
    Boredom was settling in again as my lack of focus was starting to take its toll, and I started to walk back to the main hall. Either by luck or by chance, I came across a worthwhile find in the Student Career/College area, it was an enormous testing guidebook, CPA Accounting Exam 2008. CPA, or Certified Public Accountant, is the title given to the professionals in the field. Passing the test and gaining certificate of approval wasn’t necessarily required, Holding the title of CPA was the equivalent of earning a degree, the golden crown for aspiring accountants and hopeful entrepreneurs. Given the fact that it’s the year 2010, the examples offered might have been a tad bit outdated, but sucking up whatever useful knowledge out of its pages would be beneficial for me none-the-less. One of the things that has always bugged me was how such a demanding test would be passed in the first place .This particular exam book only covered the financial aspects of the exam; there was likely a managerial, forensic, and tax-based portions as well. Just thinking about the length of time a person would need to finish was giving me a headache. Fortunately the authors were so kind as to allocate a paragraph’s worth of information on how the entire examination pans out,
    "The Uniform CPA Examination is delivered using computer-based testing(CBT). You may take the exam one section at a time. During eight months of every year, you may take the exam on your, six days a weekend in the morning and in the afternoon" ( Whittington and Delany 1).
    Currently enrolled in Accounting Principles One-the basics of the basics-it was not surprised how complex the problems were in the CPA exam book, and how difficult they were to solve. All in all, I soaked it up as a simple reminder of the long trek ahead me before I can even claim to be CPA material, however, this will eventually be well worth the run.


    Work Cited:
    Peikoff, Lenord. “Introduction to the 50th Anniversary American Edition” Anthem. New York. Dutton.
    1995. Print.
    Takada, Yuzo. 3x3 Eyes. “Flight of the Demon”. Milwaukie, Oregon. Dark Horse Comics, Inc. 2000.
    Print.
    Whittington, o. Ray and Patrick R. Delaney. Wiley CPA Exam Review 2008: Financial Accounting and
    Reporting. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 2008. Print.