The Home Stretch!

At least for tax season, it is. This time next week I'll be winding up my last day in the tax office. It has been a fun and productive season, but it has been tough to do the juggle between evenings in the tax office and evenings to get caught up on homework.

Fortunately, being my 7th year at taxes, I was able to flex my schedule somewhat. That meant fewer days sitting around the office waiting for walk-ins, which is nice, but it also meant my repeat clients had fewer days to get on my calendar so every day I worked was booked with clients. I learned early in February to "schedule" a bogus appointment at 8pm so I don't have someone picking 8:30pm. That would mean finishing up around 9:30 after which we still have to close the register. Grrrr! It only happened ONCE!

I've heard a few preparers express disappointment in the volume of clients this year, but I've actually done a few more tax returns than I did last year, and in fewer days. So it has been a very good year for me. I really wanted to try to keep up because my client base is important to what I hope to be doing after I get my degree. School certainly would have been easier without it. Depending on my class schedule next Spring, I'll probably do a few things differently.

So it feels like school is on the "home stretch" as well. I meet with my advisor tomorrow to make sure I'm on the right track with my class schedule for summer and fall. Online registration is 1pm Sunday (I register with the Sophomores now -- yay!), so I'm already thinking about next semester. Finals for this semester are early May, so that will be here before I know it.

I'm taking one class in Summer PreSession and two in the second Summer Session. I'll have more than a month off between them so will still have plenty of time to rest up. Those three classes will more than catch me up from taking only 13 hours this semester rather than the recommended 16. I'd much rather do it this way than go nuts during Spring and Fall semesters and goof off all summer long!