Rough draft for: The Challenge, page 1.

The Challenge

             Being a stay at home mom for thirty plus years and then entering into the working world has had many challenges.  When first starting out the questions that plagued me were “who will hire me and what do I do?”  The first place I spent a lot of time at was the WorkSource office.  I took some classes (Word, Excel, Resumes etc.) Then started applying for jobs using my resume.  I applied for many and actually was hired for a couple of part time jobs that helped me gain experience.

             The question, “what do I do?” was answered one day about four years ago as I was walking down a sidewalk and came upon a sign that said, “Tax Preparation Class” with a web site giving the information and how to sign up.  I did and found myself registered and starting a six week course in how to prepare tax returns.  Upon completion of the course you might be considered for employment.  My thought was, “If I don’t get hired I will be able to do my own taxes and save money!”

                My first day of class everything was new, scary and intimidating.  In my mind of comparisons, I was least on the scale of knowledge and everyone else (I thought) was really smart, with at least a two year degree and it seemed they were either an engineer, teacher, or CPA.  With the pressure of learning a new skill  and passing the class,  I felt very alone, not knowing anyone and dealing with my inadequacies. 

                After getting the text book and doing the first lesson I found that it was in an easy to read style with open book quizzes at the end of each chapter. The class was divided into study groups, question and answer time. The teacher was down to earth and had also been a stay at home mom with no degree.  It seemed as if I would fit in.