It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.

– Erma Bombeck

What was I thinking? Clearly, I wasn’t. Last March 2021 I decided to go back to school to earn my M.B.A. Honestly, I thought–“I’ve been working for so long, I should be able to teach these courses.” I. WAS. WRONG. This is hard stuff–courses that challenge and create tears. Finance? What once was a favorite class of mine (I got an A in undergrad and totally thought I should get my master’s in it) became my nemesis.

I was working at Western Governors University at the time, and they offer employees a 75% off discount to earn your degree or advanced degree. An amazing benefit for sure and I wasn’t about to let that pass me by. Because it’s a competency-based education, rather than sit in a class for 8 or 16 weeks, you go through the courses at your own pace. You have to master the course to move on to your next one. Now, there are two issues with me doing this.

• I will procrastinate if I’m not passionate about it. (Who is passionate about accounting?)
• It was A LOT harder than I thought it would be.

Rather than take the Master’s in Leadership degree path, I decided that my weakness, my kryptonite, was math. So, I’d take the M.B.A. to turn that weakness into a strength! HA! You know, sometimes my confidence is really too much. My father, a former weatherman in the Air Force (clearly a math wizard) had four girls, none of whom were math stars, is probably looking down on me from heaven and laughing. I can picture him now, actually. Admiring my moxie yet laughing at my reality.

Enter Finance. What an eye opener. It took me two months and endless nights of taking my frustrations out on Dave. I had to learn all of the formulas, AND understand why and when you would use them. The Gordon Growth model? WACC? WTF? I went on endlessly on LinkedIn about how difficult it was and would slip in comments here and there in others’ posts. When I passed, I posted in ALL CAPS–I PASSED FINANCE. THAT IS ALL. To this day, it remains my most liked post. HA!

I’m almost there! Taking my Operations Management assessment tomorrow and then Econ and my capstone. I’ve learned so much about accounting, data analysis, and yes, finance. But I’ve also learned that I’m resilient. I’ve always said I don’t pretend to know everything about everything, but this degree showed me I know more than I think and if I don’t know it, I’m willing to learn. And I think at the heart of it, that’s what this is about, right? Learning, change for the better, having a better understanding of myself so I better understand others. Absorbing the good, bad, and the ugly (FINANCE), to grow. It’s been a fantastic journey from Henry and Muriel’s mom, or Dave’s wife to Lauran. From being behind them to beside them.