Soapbox Monday

Okay, it's time for me to get on my soap box. Let's talk about massage. I talked to my close friend from massage school, who works at the school we went to teaching massage. She told me that now our beloved school, which used to be the one of the best in the country, is now enrolling students with no screening process. When we applied to school, we had to write an essay, we had to interview, we had to have references. It was serious. Now, they don't do any of that. Why is all of that important? I'll tell you. To keep all of the people who shouldn't be doing massage out of massage. I guess the changes (and there have been many, many changes at this school during the past couple of years, resulting in many, many wonderful teachers leaving, not to mention the deletion of many classes that I felt were transformational and very important to my experience) are due to the emergence of all of these "bandwagon" schools. Schools that aren't really massage schools offering massage programs. I'm talking about Everest (formerly GMI), ACT, Sanford Brown, and the myriad others that all decided to jump into massage. They appeal to people who want a way to make decent money without going to college. They make you think that in just a few months you can be making "very good money" as a massage therapist. These are not massage schools! They just added it in their curriculum. They may satisfy the basic requirements of teaching massage, but they produce substandard massage therapists. Sorry if I'm offending anyone. Let me say this: if you have a natural talent for massage and you go to one of these schools, you'll probably still be a good massage therapist, but not as good as you could be. I'd like to think that most people who do massage started out with some natural talent. But some people think that you can make all this money doing massage, and that's why they get into it. Well, I'm here to tell you people, you'll never get rich doing massage. If you could do 8 massages a day every day for years and years without burning out, then yeah, you would make a ton of money, but it's just not possible. All the b.s. they give you about making your own hours is crap, too. Even if you work for yourself, you have to be there when your clients want you to. Only when you've built up a very large and reliable clientèle can you decide when you want to work, and that takes years. What these new schools have done is ruin massage. Pretty soon you are going to see that it is damn near impossible to get a good massage, because there will be all of these people out there, just doing it for the money, and that makes for a CRAP massage. You have to do it b/c you love it. My friend told me that her students were complaining about having to learn anatomy! Please people, what did you think you were getting into? We learned chemistry, for crying out loud! But that's not all it takes to be a massage therapist. You have to be completely okay with all aspects of the human body, and all it's variations in shape and size. You have to be patient and compassionate, you have to be able to create a healing and open space for the client. It's all about them. You should ideally be kind of an organic eating, natural living, hippy-dippy, peaceful, recycling, one with nature kind of person (I don't want you to think you have to be liberal, or even a democrat; that's completely separate) because that's who massage therapist are, that's why we became massgae therapists, because we are like that! These schools appeal to quick-fix, I gotta make money the quickest and easiest way I can kind of people. They are ruining massage! I am so dissapointed in the current state of massage. I have to put a note in here about those massage membership places too, like massage envy. I have to first say that I take advantage of it, too, because I love getting massage and I want to be able to get one regularly, and trading isn't always easy to do. So yeah, I go to massage envy, so that's why I can tell you that it's really really tough to get a good massage there. I think it's for a few reasons. One, these people are paid crap, and I'd rather work as a parts delivery driver than do massage at one of these places. Two, they are booked back to back with no time between massages, and three they have to do so many just to make money. So, how can you expect to get a good massage? You have to weed through all the crap massages, find a good therapist, and hope they don't quit before your next massage. Plus, they cut your massage really short. They pick you up late and get done early. It's not their fault, it's just the way it is at those places. Well, I really hope that massage isn't completely destroyed by all of these fake massage schools. I think that the market will soon be so saturated with massage therapists that people who aren't cut out for it will stop seeking out these fake schools. I just hope that it isn't too late for the real schools to go back to the right way by then. I know that if I was hiring massage therapists, I would not hire anyone who graduated from any of the new schools, who graduated from my school any later than I did, or who graduated recently from any school in GA. I hate to say it, but it's the way I feel. Peace.

Frustration

There is nothing more frustrating than a tired baby who won't go to sleep, especially when you are exhausted too.

Slacking

Wow, it seems this blogging thing has gotten away from me a bit. Why does that not surprise me? Part of it's because sometimes I don't really have anything particularly interesting to say, part of it's because I spent all my internet time shopping or "window" shopping, and part of it's because I just couldn't find any time period. Another birthday has come and gone. They are so anti climactic when you're a grown up. Especially when you'd rather they start going backwards. I started a new job last week and it's sooooo different from my old one, in good and bad ways. I'm glad to be doing something new though. I'm thinking I won't stay there for years like I did with Spa Sydell, but we'll see. I hope that sooner rather than later I will figure out a way to be at home with my baby full time. I hate going back to work full time but I can't get around it right now. I gotta go manifest some money into my checking account.