It's a Happy Kind of Anxious.

This past Sunday was my graduation ceremony from the school where I'd been taking courses in medical coding and billing since September. Back in June, I passed my certification exam and I officially became a CPC-A by the American Academy of Professional Coders. It wasn't easy--it's a test where you have 5 hours and 40 minutes and you are not allowed to leave the room. It may only be 150 multiple choice questions but they're incredibly long and very reading-intensive.

On Monday, I start my first "big girl" job as a medical coder. I'm actually working where my mom does. Her bosses really like me and when they heard I was in school, they basically were just waiting for me to pass my exam and then they hired me. I'm excited because I'll finally have a job with stable pay and benefits and I can actually be financially independent. I can save money for all those trips I've always wanted to take. I can pay my bills fully and not have to worry about how I'm going to put gas in my car for the next two weeks. I am anxious to start though. I'm nervous because I don't want to screw up--I'm going to actually be auditing and reviewing others' work. I'm reviewing Evaluation & Management codes to see if they met the proper criteria before being billed to insurance companies. I did well in that section in school, and I actually enjoyed that more than the billing aspect. But I'm nervous because this isn't like practice examples in school--this is real. If I mess up, it can't be billed to the insurance. A doctor's practice or a hospital could lose out on money. If they get audited, I could get in trouble. It's really serious stuff. I'm not worried about going to jail or anything like that, I'm more nervous about appearing stupid in front of my mom's bosses & co-workers... Who I guess are now my bosses & co-workers...

July is shaping up to be a pretty awesome month. On the 15th, Corey & I are going to be going to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for WWE's "RAW." You may see me on TV. ;) And then the following weekend, my mom and I will be meeting two of our close family friends in Baltimore to celebrate her birthday. It'll be nice to have a little weekend getaway.

Hope everyone had a good fourth of July. See you on the beach!