Did I mention I'm changing my life here? or: I'm gonna learn Massage Therapy!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m making some serious changes in my life right now, in the interest of being a healthier, happier person.

Of course, there’s the fact that my husband has moved out, and the next eight weeks or so will either vastly improve our marriage or else end in permanent separation/divorce. In general, I feel very good about my decision and my situation right now. I get anxious sometimes, but overall, my home hasn’t been this peaceful for years.

I’m also working on the house. Much housework remains to be done, but I’m slowly making progress. Even more importantly, I found myself a handyman! He’s coming today to give me estimates on some small jobs I need done, and I’ll try to have him do one job a month. I can only budget $100-150 for it, but that will get some small things out of the way. (First project: Remove nasty stone-age dishwasher and replace with deep shelves to put my crock pot and big stuff like that on.)

NOW. The bigger news: I’m going to go to school to become a Massage Therapist! I have zero money in the bank, so I may have to wait until May to start. But since I can come up with a couple hundred per month, I called the woman who owns the school and told her that if she ends up with an empty spot (in the December program) and would rather have someone like me fill it than to leave it empty, give me a call. Her response was, “Hmmm! Why don’t you come in on Monday and we’ll talk about it?” So maybe I can start out with small payments and then put down a good chunk out of my tax return.

And I have to tell you all that having the support that I find here on the SD has been incredibly important to me. It’s been good for me to get a bit of cheering-on when I need it most. It’s far too easy to forget that I’m strong and capable and smart…and to quit listening to whatever voice guides me in making decisions.

So now, I’m working on finding that voice again, and I’m not going to neglect it anymore.

:slight_smile:

karol

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Good for you! :slight_smile: Great to see you taking charge. Hope all goes well. I may find myself in a similiar situation :\ at some point so you are an inspiration.

3

Congratulations on your decision to go to Massage Therapy School. My friend couldn’t deal with the last 2 years of high school, so she took the GED and went on to Massage Therapy School as well. She’s very happy with her decisions and she says that her vocation is fulfilling to her. I hope that you are as happy in it as she is. ::hugs:: Good luck with everything… it might take a lot of hard work, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.

-Indigo-

4

Good for you, bodypoet! Don’t forget to post back on Monday and let us know how it goes!!

5

Okay! I went in to talk to the school owner today, explained my situation and financial outlook, and begged for mercy. Heh.
She is going to let me enroll for the amount I can pay each month, a chunk o’ dough at tax time, and continued payments after that.
Whoohoo! I start in December. :slight_smile: Very exciting stuff!
Thanks for the encouragement, Dopers!

6

Good for you! This is very exciting! I’m very happy for you!

7

I used to live next door to a professional clown/licensed massage therapist.

Best damn neighbor I ever had.

:smiley:

8

I took a break from my RN drone job and went to massage therapy school a few years ago. If you are comfortable touching people and being closer to them than the average public encounter, then you will do fine. A few students in my class - a retired highway patrolman, a bank teller - had a tough time making the switch from “hands off” to “hands on”. I am back in the nursing field now, but still get out my beautiful massage table and give some killer massages to friends. Best of luck to you, and be sure to get a quality table when you are ready to start working on your own. Makes all the difference in the world.

9

Since this is MPSIMS, I’m going to Share some Mundane Pointless Stuff… a story which would not believe if I did not personally know the hero of the tale.

At my Old Company, I used to work with a guy named Dan. Now Dan was very good-looking, and rather smooth; the rest of us guys were always jealous because he seemed to be going out with a hot babe every time we saw him.

Eventually, things at that old company slowed down, and we all left and went our separate ways… but this is a small world, and we see each other occasionally.

Dan briefly became a head-hunter for the company that placed me in my current position after I left the Old Company. He later became a consultant for the IT consulting firm which my New Company hired to help us upgrade our Oracle applications.

Finally, Dan quit his job as an overpaid IT consultant and settled into school to learn Massage Therapy, fueled partly by a muscular injury suffered during a vigourous game of golf that no doubt took place during the week while the rest of us were at work.

Tyrone - a coworker of mine and also former coworker of Dan’s - shared my amazement. How could one give up the lucrative consulting world and suffer through the hardship of being a student again, only to emerge into a profession which would not be likely to provide him with the klind of income he was accustomed to?

After months of shaking heads and questioning our friend’s wisdom, we finally received a message from him. He was now a licensed massage therapist, and completely by chance, had found a professional gig right away:

He became the massage therapist for the Silver City gentlemen’s club.

Dan’s job? To massage the stiff, aching muscles of gorgeous women who danced (nearly) naked for a living.

This was too good to be true. One remembers the ending to Dumb and Dumber, where Harry and Lloyd stupidly give up the opportunity to become “Oil Boys” for the Miss Hawaiian Tropic tour.

… but Dan made the dream come true. It was real, and he was doing it for a living. We were all cursing our fates and speaking his name with jealousy and a healthy dose of spite.

Epilogue

Of course, good things can’t last forever.

Here in Texas, the governing body that licenses Massage Therapists will revoke your license if you are employed in a Sexually Oriented Business (“SOB”).

Dan didn’t get to massage every girl, either. His services were paid for not by the club, but only out of the dancers’ own G-strings, so he was making but a pittance even on the busiest nights.

Eventually, he had to quit. I honestly can’t say I know what he’s doing now.