Today is my last official day at NBU. I visited financial aid yesterday asked how many hours I had left. The fin aid lady smiled and said, "9 hours to go! Congratulations!" I felt a lump in my throat. I clock out at 9PM tonight and my hours are complete. I can hardly believe it. I’m reflecting, but refusing to get weepy-eyed.
I keep thinking back over the past 10 months and wondering where all the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday I sat in the lobby of NBU and marveled at what a sexy place it seemed to be - -everyone all in black, tattoos and piercings proudly accepted, fun music blaring. Now I’ve seen a little behind the curtain and understand a lot more about the beauty industry - - good and bad.
I still love it.
Last night I looked around at my classmates and thought about the amazing time we’ve had. Something reminded me of the HBO series Band of Brothers. Ok, so this is hardly a war - - even I realize that. But there is something magical about accomplishing what we’ve accomplished together. We’re all working a day job, paying for class ourselves, managing relationships and families. It was apparent to me - - there’s something special that develops when you trust someone to put peroxide chemicals on your eyelashes. You begin to break it down and talk about a family member’s cancer diagnosis, alcoholism, or a spouse's unfaithfulness. There’s something about the beautification process that’s way more significant than the actual “improvement” to the outside appearance.
I’ve heard people talk about how this industry gets in your blood. I get that now. Despite the long hours and the weekend work, I can’t imagine not working in it in some capacity. This brings me to my new beauty venture, which makes me smile. I call it TANtaleyes. Without going into too much detail here, I’ll give you the website – www.thetanartist.com.
I’m excited and I've been singing a line from the only song I know by Semisonic. “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. Yeah...” –Closing Time (Circa 1999)
Gettin’ Beauty Schooled,
Rita
For your enjoyment - a few more pics from my beauty school memoirs that didn't make the cut to a blog...
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| The first man wax in our class. It was only arms, but we were still excited. |
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| Clearly I was excited about receiving my Smashbox Pro card. Not sure I've even used it more than one or twice! |
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| The night I broke my purple leopard print phone case. What's beauty school without some kind of animal print? |
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| When the temp got below 60 degrees, we resorted to spa robes to keep warm. |
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| I meant to do a blog on these things - - the new Kiss lashes with application strings. I wasn't a fan, but I've already adopted my technique. If you've had trouble with applying lashes in the past - - you might want to try them. They are super cheap and at the drug store. |
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| One of my fave pics of school. My teacher had just had a Jessner's chemical peel. Her skin was coming off in sheets! |
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| My final state board exam kit. Complete with sheets, a tunic, paper towels, sanitizer, tweezers, mock wax, the list could go on and on.... |
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| Everything has to be labeled in the state board kit. |
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| The six "smaller" kits I have to use for state board to test out for things like, steaming someone's face, using a face vac, brushes, waxing eyebrows, etc. |
