Chelsea Carpenter- Audit Senior

Contrary to popular belief, being in the accounting field is not always as humdrum as many assume. As a CPA, I am required to be out in the field and traveling quite a bit. This makes for many interesting stories, but I don’t think any of them have quite compared to what I experienced just last week. It was the very first day of busy season, and my flight to Lafayette, LA was scheduled to depart at 9:30 a.m. I could not sleep because I was so excited and anxiously awaiting to start the first working day of the New Year. I was also really excited because I did not bring my computer bag. My fiancé, Casey, had this incredible book bag with tons of pockets; it is especially made to carry a computer. He was so nice and cleaned it out for me before I went on my trip. I got up early, packed my suit case, and off to the airport I went. I got to the airport in record time, and checked in with no trouble. The security line was a little long, but I was not worried—I had plenty of time. After standing in the security line for 15 minutes it was now my turn to place my items on the conveyer belt to be checked, no worries, I am good right? WRONG!!!!!! Casey’s awesome book bag had so many great pockets that he had forgotten to take everything out and, to my surprise, there was a huge knife in his bag… two inches to be exact. They pulled me aside, placed my face to the ground, and tied my hands behind my back. Well not exactly, but it made you keep reading, right? Seriously, they pulled me aside, asked me all these questions and my first response was “that is not mine!” Let me tell you don’t ever respond with those words to a TPA employee. They asked me several questions, took my license and ran a background check. When everyone had calmed down and my knees stopped shaking, they measured the blade of the knife. The TPA employee told me if it had been one inch longer they would have taken me to jail. Well, they finally let me go and I think I cried all the way to the gate in fear and happiness. I still was able to make it to the gate 45 minutes early and just enough time to drink my Starbucks. So, for anyone who still thinks that being an auditor just makes for long days of number crunching—think again!