October 2013 CPA Board Exams Results' Waiting Game

Yesterday was the last day of the October 2013 CPA Board Exams.  As of writing, the results of the exams has yet to be released.  Needless to say these are some of the longest minutes, hours in a cpa board exam taker's life.  This is to be expected as a lot of these folks' hopes and dreams (for some, not just their own hopes and dreams) hinge on a positive result of the exam.

My own CPA board exam result took a day and a half to arrive.  I was a mental wreck then.

Along with a few friends, board exam takers themselves, we decided to numb everything by consuming copious amounts of alcohol.  Having almost exhausted our very scarce finances on alcohol, we decided to watch a movie to further push the thought of the exam results in the back of our mind.  I think that was the worst movie I've watched in my entire life.  I couldn't even remember what movie we watched.

When we finally stumbled out of the theater, it was already dark but still no CPA board exams results. At a loss for what to do to kill the time, we boarded a bus heading towards Laguna.  We had no idea why we were going to Laguna, we just wanted to get away.  When we arrived, we just crossed the road and then rode a bus going back to Manila.  It was the opposite of a joy ride.  We asked the bus driver to drop us off at Espana and spent some time walking around the UST campus.

Around past midnight I decided to leave the group to go search for an early delivery of Manila Bulletin so I can see the result on my own.  I didn't want anyone of my friends to see me break down in case I failed.  After a couple of jeepney routes, I finally caught up with an owner type jeep delivering the morning paper.  My heart skipped a beat when I approached the newspaper vendor who just started unpacking the bundle she received.

Hiding my anxiety, I asked for the Manila Bulletin and went straight to the CPA results page.  Before scanning the names, I said a little prayer and knitted my eyebrows as I ran my finger down every name that started with the same letter as my surname.

The sight of your name on that list brings waves and waves of euphoria and ecstacy that you'll literally pinch yourself just to make sure you're not dreaming.  You look at your name again and the same process happens.  The best feeling ever!  Dopamine, Serotonin, Norepinephrine (all those good stuff that junkies try to summon with their pills and needles) come rushing out with no chemical prodding.

The newspaper vendor looked at me in a weird way before I realized that I was standing in the middle of Munoz shouting my lungs out.  After recovering my senses, I went back to the vendor's stall and gave her my last hundred.

"Pumasa ba?", she asked, smiling.

"Keep the change."  I smiled back then walked away.