Ahhhh!!!!!

I can only say so much about my cats. This morning while struggling with what to write about, the only thing I could come up with was an essay on the shocking amount of poo they produce...but who wants to read that? So instead I'm going to use my blog as a place to FREAK OUT and complain and explain why I didn't go to business school (short answer being that I have no interest in business, accounting, finances, or numbers).

I generally think of myself as pretty smart. No, I didn't go to an Ivy League school or anything, but I went to a good college, graduated with honors, am doing fairly well in my career, and have pretty good "life skills" (whatever that means). So it's incredibly frustrating for me to suddenly be back in school and not understanding things. My Masters in Publishing program requires that we take two semesters of accounting, which pretty much makes people in this industry run the other way or hide, for fear of math, numbers, or evaluating financial statements. Which was pretty much my reaction, until I talked to some friends and attended my first class.

"Accounting is easy," one friend told me.
"The class wasn't bad at all," a former student advised.
"There isn't even much math involved," said the professor.

So I convinced myself that it would be ok, because after all, one main reason I'm getting this degree is because it's useful to understand the business side of your industry (and necessary for when I become VP one day and take over the world).

It's only three weeks in, but let me just say that EVERYONE WAS WRONG. Today I spent an hour trying to do my first assignment until I got so frustrated that I felt physically ill and had to give up. Turns out there wasn't actual math involved (so ok, maybe the professor was right) but I feel like I'm rewiring my brain to understand terms and concepts I've been using my whole life that suddenly mean different things. Assets vs. Revenue vs. Gain? In "My World," these are the same. Losses vs. Liabilities vs. Debt? The same. Owners equity...say huh? Except in "Accounting World" all of these have actual meanings and, sadly, are not the same at all.

What bothers me most is that my "scary homework assignment" was to do two (yes, only two) practice problems that involved identifying different terms and determining whether they were assets, liabilities, losses, revenue, etc. So to anyone who actually has a business mind and is laughing at my stupidity right now...if you'd like to explain all this to me in layman's terms that I can understand, it would be much appreciated because I'm confused and frustrated and annoyed.

And that, my friends, is why I didn't go to business school.

Hmph.