Love what you do, do what you love! Part 2

In part 1, I chronicled how I sort of fell in to massage school after a friend invited me to attend an open house at Educating Hands School of Massage. Never intending to make a career out of massage therapy, I thought massage school would be fun and that massage would be a nice way to earn some extra money on the side. I also explained how the school owner made a prediction that there would come a time when giving massage would be as good for me as it was for the recipient. I left off having experienced an “Ah-ha!” moment, realizing that I certainly did feel amazing while giving massage, and deciding that I owed it to myself to further pursue massage as a way to make a living.

I still wasn’t convinced that I wanted to become a full time massage therapist. I wasn’t quite ready to give up my job in health care.  But wanting to do massage on a more regular basis I decided to go out to Key Biscayne where I knew there was a resort hotel with a spa. I thought I would drop off my resume and possibly pick up a weekend shift here and there. After realizing that I had missed the turn into the resort, I proceeded to the next intersection to make a U-turn. At that intersection I saw a small sign for the Ritz-Carlton and thought to myself, “Why not?” The Ritz-Carlton had not yet opened and they were in the process of hiring all of the staff they would need to open the hotel. As luck would have it, the spa director was in the human resources office that day doing interviews. When I met with her she told me that since the hotel was just opening, they weren’t yet hiring on-call and per diem employees, but if at the end of the interview process I was good for them and they were good for me, she would put me on the call list for future availability. That seemed fair enough.

The Ritz-Carlton has a multistep interview process, so before I left that day I scheduled the next few follow up appointments. When I came back for my second interview, a woman in the HR department that I barely had interactions with, welcomed me back enthusiastically and told me how happy she was to see me. I looked over my shoulder expecting to see someone else entering the room with me, but no, that greeting was for me. With each subsequent interview, I had similar experiences with the people I encountered. They all seemed genuinely interested in having me there. It seemed kind of odd, but I liked it. I spoke with my husband about it, and told him there was something about that company that really attracted me. We crunched numbers and weighed the pros and cons, and realizing that there were no guarantees, recognized there was certainly potential to make a decent living as a massage therapist.

So at my final interview with the spa director, I told her that I would like to change my application. It was then that I decided to take a chance, quit my “real” job and become a full time massage therapist. I haven’t regretted it for a minute! Just goes to show you that sometimes a wrong turn is really the right turn if you’re open to the possibilities and up for adventure.