Virtually Paul

Certifiably Graduated

I got my summer semester results today.  I now have a Graduate Certificate in Chartered Accounting Foundations in spite of Deakin University.  That means I’m now qualified to start the Chartered Accountants Progam at some point in the future.

I have an extremely low opinion of the delivery of the Grad Cert course (so if you’re considering doing it… look into it thoroughly first and see if you think you can stomach what’s on offer).  However, I got through with a distinction average.  Yay for that.

Unexpected Surprises

I was at an engagement party on Saturday night and ran into a friend from camps/bible college who I hadn’t caught up with in ages. After the party he was heading up to his family’s house in Buxton for the night. I’d spent the week at work full-time, so not being able to bear the idea of a weekend opportunity going to waste, I invited myself along. My sister had given me a lift to the party, so with nothing but my phone, wallet and keys in my pockets… we headed off. It’d been a while between conversations, so we spent a while just playing with different theological ideas we’d been thinking about. It was good. It was especially good when we got the chance to unpick a few of our respective ideas a bit further, where normally we might sit on the fence a bit more for the sake of political correctness.

On Sunday morning, we rolled up at his church so that he could meet his commitment to play keyboard for a small church, with maybe 25 people, all probably over 60. It was whilst I was sitting on a pew by myself, waiting for the service to start, that I met Ada. Ada strolled in the door with the assistance of her walking frame. She’d been in the door less than 20 seconds before she looked straight at me and called out the warmest “Hello there!”. Within a minute, I hadn’t moved and Ada and her walking frame had come to sit next to me. We had a great little conversation as she told me all about where she’d lived throughout her life and the things she’d done. Within 5 minutes we’d worked out that Ada grew up at Moonee Ponds Baptist Church with my grandfather and that my great-grandmother (who I never got to meet) had played the organ in her wedding. Ada was even more surprised and delighted than I was, calling her husband over in excitement.
“Guess who’s grandson this is!”

I felt special.

Life of Paul update

It’s Sunday night and I’d have to say I feel quite good about my preparation, to date, for the two exams I will be sitting in the coming week. The first one is tomorrow afternoon and the second on Wednesday morning, after which I will (touch wood) have completed my Graduate Certificate in Chartered Accounting Foundations. I won’t sidetrack the post with a rant on my less than flattering opinion of the course but you can email me if you’re interested.

Completing the Grad Cert makes life extremely more interesting, given that I’m not enrolled in anything else. That will make the coming semester the first time that I haven’t been studying something, since leaving high school at the end of 2001. I cannot wait. I will be moving up to full time work in the coming weeks, outside of which I will have absolutely no ongoing commitments or expectations being placed upon my time.  It’s going to be good.

I moved back over to the north-west of Melbourne in mid-January, the day before my former housemate got back from his honeymoon. With the exams pending, my parents were gracious enough to allow me to return to the family home, so that I could devote sufficient attention to studying and not be rushed into finding new accommodation.

It’s been nice being back home, even though it involves almost an hour’s drive to get to work.  The work thing will probably take its toll eventually but so far I’ve survived.  It’s been good having a chance to just spend time with my family and hear about things that are going on day-to-day.  I’ve also spent a bit more time at my family’s church in Essendon than I had been whilst living out east.  I really like the familiarity sometimes.  The sermon this morning was excellent too.  Dan preached on interacting with the community and reminded us of how ineffective it is to have separatist habits, where we just stick to being friends with ‘churchy’ people.

It has gotten to the point where I’m almost going to have to choose between two very viable options for the remainder of the year.  I could choose to live in either the east or the north-west of Melbourne, without either being a terrible option.  Finishing the Grad Cert also has me asking bigger questions of career choice and life direction.  I think I’m actually going to find it challenging to just sit still for a little while, without necessarily knowing where I’m “based” or “where I’m headed” but I’m hoping that’s a good thing because it leaves room for lots of pleasant surprises.