Go With Your Gut

In June of 2017, I was officially a high school graduate! I was more than thrilled to start my new beginning at Robert Morris University. I was going to be a Division I athlete, living my dream. Starting at RMU, I was enrolled as a dual major student studying marketing and finance. Running from class to practice to the trainers’ office and then back to class was all part of my daily life as a student-athlete. My mornings were booked with classes and my afternoons were dedicated to practice and recovery. I followed a strict schedule to keep myself on top of things.

My freshman year was a complete success! I had survived my first year as a college student. I worked my summer job and was ready to dive deeper into my majors. In the end of August, I began my first semester of my sophomore year. Going to my first class of the day, I was not expecting much. It was an 8:00 am class and I was not looking forward to it. The class was Intro to Financial Accounting. My teammate and I sat down and were anticipating being bored and confused. I left that classroom that day thinking accounting wasn’t all I had originally thought it was. The more I went to class, the more I learned that accounting wasn’t just a boring person having a boring job. I even started to actually enjoy my class. Finals week had come around and I found myself sad that my class was over. As I walked out of the final, the professor had stopped me and asked me what my major was. I told him that I was a dual-major in marketing and finance, and he told me, “Think about an accounting major, I think you’d do well.” I thought about it for about a day and then forgot all about it.

Beginning my spring semester, I was busier than ever. I was enrolled in six classes and we were in the peak of track season. Starting in March, I was travelling every weekend to various states to compete. I was enrolled in a few marketing classes, a general business class, and managerial accounting. Managerial accounting was hard and confusing and it stressed me out at times. I began to work at it every day. I would study and practice the same problems over and over until I could get them right without looking at the steps to complete the questions. In all of that, I fell in love with it. I loved figuring out hard questions, I enjoyed putting the pieces together for it all to make sense. My professor started to notice. I then started tutoring people outside of class. Explaining it to other students only increased my knowledge of the subject. I remember four days before one of the big exams, my computer screen had gone black. I immediately took it to Apple and they told me it was going to take at least five days to fix it. I cried in the store. All of my homework, study guides, notes and even my book was in my computer. The team was travelling to James Madison University that weekend, so I didn’t even have time to study with other classmates. I came back from that meet very late Sunday night.

Monday morning at 9:00 am, I had my managerial accounting exam. I went into that exam more nervous than I had ever been and it was because I did not feel prepared. Leaving that exam, I had to run to the bus to get to practice. I felt sick the entire practice. All I could think about was how I did on that exam. My professor was a quicker grader, so by the time I was finished with practice, I received my grade. 100%. I couldn’t believe it! I was barely able to study and I was able to still get a perfect on the exam. I was on cloud nine.

Finals week was nearly approaching, which means scheduling for the next semester. I had begun to think about changing my major to accounting, but I didn’t tell anyone except my one academic advisor. When I shared the news with him, he laughed and told me my accounting professors were hounding him with questions as to why I would not change my major. Those professors believed in me, my advisor believed in me, and I started to believe in myself. That next day, I officially changed my primary major to accounting and I never looked back. I fell in love with the confusing language and the difficult questions that seemed impossible to solve. I am learning new things every day because of the switch I made. Schneider Downs has allowed me to continue learning daily. If someone were to ask me if I liked auditing or not, I would say it sounds boring. After my time here, I absolutely enjoy every single second of being an auditing intern. I have learned things I never even thought I needed to know. Thank you, Schneider Downs, for giving a girl a chance when she thought this was the last thing she wanted to do: it changed my life.