<p>I'm new to College Confidential, so it's nice to meet you all.</p>
<p>A little background about me:</p>
<p>When I was 19, I stupidly went to a for-profit college on purpose just to learn video game art for a few months while I waited for the Spring Semester at the state college of my choice to open up. I fully intended to leave after a semester and go to the college of my choice. Problem was, that my mother (who is the head of the household) kind of trapped me there. She told me that if I were to transfer to another school, didn't matter if it was legitimate or the fact that it was thousands of dollars cheaper for me and her, she would not do the FAFSA.</p>
<p>So my two choices were to drop out of that school, work for 5 years until I turned 24 and didn't need my mother's information to fill out the FAFSA, -or- believe the hype that degree didn't matter, stick around and graduate with a Bachelor's of Arts in Visual Arts, and pray that the school will finish being AASCB credited. The college says that they are, and the AASCB website said the same thing, however, for some reason none of the state colleges or universities wouldn't acknowledge the classes I took.</p>
<p>So I chose to graduate and did so in 2009, I've worked several odd jobs since then trying to pay my student loans and also my bills. I worked on and off until I was laid off in 2012 due to my contract expiring. It was this year that I got married at 25 and finally, moved out of my mother's house.</p>
<p>With my husband's encouragement, I took a "sabbatical" from working and school and spent a year self-teaching myself anything from SEO, Marketing, Generic Business practices, web design, a little SQL, and touching up on my Photoshop again. My focus was on business only, I either wanted to help someone manage their online business, help someone to advertise their local business, or to beef up my skills so I can have some sort of an edge. August of 2013, I went back to community college to get my Associate's, financial aid didn't come through fast enough and at that time my husband was in the midst of a company move, so we needed the extra money to help settle down to his new location. </p>
<p>As upset as I was, I got over it. I finally started January of 2014, my focus is Associate's of Science in Accounting Paraprofessional. I love it, I fell in love with accounting and business as a whole. I also took a contract job doing data entry for their online business, it originally was supposed to be for 20 hours but my employer kept piling on more work, I eventually quit that job. I didn't do so hot my first semester in my Accounting classes mainly because of that and because I had one teacher that did a deplorable job teaching and another teacher that sucked at communicating with their students. Even still, I managed a 95% on the Accounting 101 final so that brought my grade up to a high C, and I managed to get As in the Bookkeeping Principles class, so that brought my grade up to a low B. </p>
<p>It still didn't deter me, for my Summer I semester I took Accounting 230 with another teacher and I've consistently gotten As on the homework and tests. I participated as much as I could in his class and he was impressed that I knew things that he didn't expect the class to know :P Before I started the Spring semester my GPA was 2.6, it's probably higher now but I can't check at the moment. I have Summer II, Fall, and Spring 2015 left before I graduate with my Associate's. I will be 28 years old when I finish.</p>
<p>As I am still paying off my student loans from the first college (which surprise surprise, it shut down and no longer exists... not even Google can find it! that's why I started over, because I was afraid employers would think I'm lying if they couldn't find my school in their background checks), I decided to hold off on getting a Bachelor's of Science in Accounting for awhile. My plan is to get an Accounts Payable clerk job, work at that for 3 years before moving to Austin and attending the McCombs School of Business. That would mean that I would be 31 years old when I start at McCombs. I don't know when I'll sit for the CPA exam but hopefully before I'm 35.</p>
<p>My main goal in life is to work abroad, preferably in Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa, Canada or various parts of Europe. I have family that can sponsor me in both Canada and Australia, and I have European Citizenship as well. I'm leaning towards Singapore because it's considered "the business capital" of the world, but I don't know what I would have to do to get there. And I also worry that my age (early 30s and a little accounting experience) will be hindering me. </p>
<p>The reason why I'm not continuing right after my Associate's is because my husband is going back to school and changing career fields like I am. He's attempting to get a PhD in Plasma Physics, so his classes will be far difficult than mine. Once of us has to work, so I decided to be the one working as a bookkeeper or Accounts Payable for awhile to pay off my loans and bills before we both transfer to University of Texas. For what it's worth, we will both go to UT paying in-state tuition, my husband is a Texas resident, I'm not, I will have to live there for awhile before qualifying for Texas residency. Also, unlike me, my husband is lucky because he's debt free, and eligible for lots of things like Pell Grant (in addition, he's planning to join the Navy to offset his future PhD costs).</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post, but am I screwed? Is my age going to be a hindrance? Should I attempt to get a Bachelor's right after my Associate's anyway? Or am I okay with taking a 3 year break to work at a smaller firm or something like H&R block?</p>