Humble Beginnings

I'd like to welcome you to the beginning of what I hope will be an interesting journey. You see, at the beginning of this month I began the enrollment process for Empire Beauty School. This decision was, without a doubt, one of the more important steps I've taken in my adult life.  It is my aim to share my school experience in hopes that it will encourage others to take that important step as well. However, to really understand why this is and where I'm coming from, you need to understand a little bit about who I am and what led me to do this.
First off, I have always enjoyed writing, but then again, I've enjoyed many, many creative hobbies that could be considered non-lucrative leeches of time and money. It doesn't mean I haven't enjoyed these hobbies, but it does mean that I've had an incredibly tough time narrowing down what I've wanted to do with my life. That said, if you're reading this blog in the first place, it is likely because you've noticed that I've decided on cosmetology.

This was not an easy decision for me at all!  At first, I thought I wanted to be an FX makeup artist, a director, a costume designer, or a concept artist. The problem is, every one of those careers are very niche and very difficult to break into unless you get lucky. Living on the east coast and being none too interested in moving to California only makes it even more difficult. I've also never been entirely convinced that I'd be happy working for anyone but myself. I suppose that might sound a little overambitious and haughty, but I wanted creative control of whatever I chose to do.
Eventually, I worked out a plan that seemed to combine the best elements of all of those "non-lucrative" hobbies and wrap them up into a nice big package just for me. It was a big dream, but the idea wasn't very practical in terms of starting out. The capital for this miracle business probably would have been astronomical. Despite that, at the time, I figured it would be alright. I figured that I would go to college, work on my business plan, and when I presented the plan to investors and banks, they'd think it was wonderful and all would be right with the world. Obviously that's not how the story goes.