| Where do I begin? Deep down, I always knew I wanted to be a therapist of some sort, and only until the time was right did I take the leap to start my bodywork journey to become a licensed massage therapist about 3 years ago. ACT I As someone who is ceaselessly interested in every dimension of everything, I’ve done a lot of different jobs in my life. From my 1st job in high school selling Daily News subscriptions door-to-door to a litany of others (in no particular order): weekly open mic host & producer; Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf barista; marketing and beyond for an active daylighting company; karaoke host; camp counselor; spoken word artist and published poet; executive director for a small non-profit organization; and a few more I’ll leave to your imagination. |
| ACT II But there at the end, balancing weekly open mic and karaoke nights on top of the non-profit job during the weekday/weekends (that was going nowhere), with a growing family to boot, I was at a crossroads of life and career aspirations. One night at my local dive bar, I ran into one of my favorite karaoke singers and caught up with her. She mentioned she was a massage therapist … and I had so many questions to ask her. Truth be told, I looked into massage therapy soon after graduating from CSU Northridge, but the thought of additional student debt was not very enticing at the time. Amanda informed me she was ten years into her massage career, had her own mobile massage business with other therapist contractors, was making good money, and couldn’t have been happier with her work. I knew right then and there I had some research to do. |
| ACT III I scheduled a walk through that very week at National Holistic Institute, figured out the financial aid, discussed the class schedules they had available and the only one that worked for me happened to include both weeknights of my shows. Not only that, but the group I would join started their semester that week, so I had to sign up then or wait another 6 months to start. After a little reflection, the decision was clear. I ended my open mic at the Coffee Bean after 10 years, told the karaoke company I could no longer host, and was starting classes at NHI the next week. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I worked at the non-profit until I passed my licensing exam and was working at Equinox Spa and building my mobile massage business before I graduated from school. After getting my massage wheels going, I eventually brought back my open mic, now at my favorite dive bar on Tuesday nights; and while I’ve moved to OC, the show goes on with a new host. I still bring massage to LA on the weekends and have been reaching out to more areas of the OC, and if it’s been a while since I’ve seen you, let’s schedule your next massage and change that! Lots more to get excited about this year! Stay tuned. |