So today I sort of went for a career fair for secondary
school girls as a mentor, but as luck would have it, I completely missed out on
the news about the diabetes walk, so was stuck on the road and arrived a cool 2
hrs late…the guest of honor was quite inspiring, and I was looking forward to
the afternoon one on one sessions. I had to leave earlier than planned for
another event, but I digress…..
Anyways, during Q&A, one girl
asked what happens when you are not sure what you want to do. What do you
choose then?? And this was deja vue to me…you see, truth be told, I never was
very very clear about what I wanted to pursue, but since my twin was clear she
wanted to work in a bank (translate, doing finance), she was signed on to a CPA
class and I tagged along. So that’s how I found myself in (the then brand
new) Strathmore college at Nairobi West in early 1995. I did CPA section I and
II pretty fast…so I had 4 more sections to go.....but then joined university in Eldoret!
After joining campus doing something totally unrelated, I took my
time to clear section III and IV. Basically it was self-study and it took a lot
of will power to read for these sections!! I remember one of the papers I sat
for the exams in Kenya Polytechnic – I was on campus break - and after that
paper, I went to the bus stage to get matatu to Langata. Wacha its starts
raining hizo za fujo. I don’t know what convinced the driver to short cut
through the pot holed ridden South C! Needless to say, the matatu coughed and
coughed and finally stopped! We all had to alight in the pouring rain to push
the matt….all this at around 8pm and the next day I had two more papers….never
felt so sorry for myself like that day….and to think I passed that set of papers
despite the transport hitch!
I also once sat for one of the exams in Eldoret town and
that morning we were several of us standing at the campus gate waiting for an
early matt and this guy came in a pick
up and asked if we wanted to ride to town. Of course we did as it would mean we
also save on bus fare…Eldoret air is normally crisp….Eldoret air as you seat at
the back of a pickup is more than crisp….waaaa…..si we froze!! Haha…and at
least I made new friends from that experience. So after section III and IV… I took
a longggggg break
After several years I told myself I simply had to finish
these papers (2 remaining sections). At that time my MBA was also at the ‘ongoing’ status and so this
was not a good picture. Since I had been out of reading for a while, I joined
one of the packed colleges in town that offer CPAs so as to be able to increase
my chances to passing the papers. I was expectant with my second born and these
stuffy rooms were not so conducive for my light tummy…several times I had to
ran out of the room because of the sheer ‘smell’ in the room given my heightened sensitivities….arrggghhhh…I
don’t even want to remember! I sat one of the final sets of papers in KPPCU - that place near Muthurwa...the dust!! and since the students are seated as per admission numbers, after all these years, I was certain I would be placed as first one in the corner, can you imagine there were 4 people with older numbers than mine!! hii CPA lazima imalizike!
So in 2007 when I finally cleared CPAs and got my results, I
was so excited I immediately signed up as a member of ICPAK and AWAK, just so
that finally I can say for sure I am a Finance professional!!
