How Did I Even Get Here?! Part 6

   Going into business for myself has been whirlwind #2 in this "Unleashed Life" of mine thus far. From the time I first "saw the sign" and my Mom said those fateful words, to the point The Unleashed Boutique was real and official, only 9 months had passed. I suppose it is fitting as it really was the start of a new life; something beautiful and exciting and scary.

   After I finished school my parents welcomed me home and let me set up shop in their garage. It was a garage like any other, full of gardening stuff, quads, paint, tools etc. It was a mess. I remember feeling a little unsure about the prospect of running a salon in the garage. I think at first I felt a bit like my parents weren't taking me seriously. Like I had just gone to school for a really expensive hobby that I would do on the weekends. In the early days after graduating grooming school (and honestly, even a little now) I struggled with feeling like people judged me for my choice in career. I know some did. I know that some people looked at me and saw someone who was just too dumb for university that she had to go into the dreaded "trade", and not even an important trade. My parents, however, were not these people. My Mom and Dad went so far beyond what I ever imagined they would do for me.

    By the time The Unleashed Boutique's one year anniversary came around, my Dad had completely refinished the garage / salon with a new floor, new walls, a raised tub for grooming and two new grooming tables. Almost all the usual garage stuff had been relocated and what was left was hidden inside some fancy new cabinets. People are always asking my dad what it's like to have been kicked out of his own garage. Dad just chuckles and smiles and I know every time I work on those tables he built me, and every time I use the tub he raised perfectly to my height, that my Daddy loves me and that I love him. 

                 

 Though my Dad did have the difficult job of turning the garage into a working salon, my Mom perhaps had the more daunting task of teaching me book keeping.  Not easy to do when your student is a grumpy dyslexic who has no idea of all the crap that goes on behind the scenes when running a business. She and I have this on going joke of how the devil comes upon me every time I do book keeping. It's not that its particularly hard, I just hate it. Thinking in numbers doesn't come naturally to me. Thanks to Mom's efforts though, I now have a pretty good handle on Simply Accounting and all the annoying things that must be done to run a business well. 

   At the end of year one I was doing 4 dogs a day and had almost 100 clients. By spring of year two I had over 100 clients, was servicing almost 200 dogs, and had to stop taking on new clients because my schedule was full. Year three came around and I hired a good friend of mine to come and be my grooming assistant so I could take on more dogs. We are now half way through year four and things are busy and crazy and great. 

   Honestly, I can't believe that it has only been four years since I started up. It feels like this is what I have done all my life. I set out on this journey looking for a career. What I picked up along the way was passion. Passion for nature. Passion for nurturing. Passion for dogs. Learning for learning sake never made sense to me until I went to grooming school. Suddenly now I want to learn everything I can about dogs just because I can. I learn about how their bodies work, how their brains work, about their body language, about their behaviour, their origins. Anything, everything, I want to know it all. I realize it is a strange thing to be passionate about, but I've found out that there are a lot of us out there. There is a whole community of people who see the unique beauty of these creatures and are equally as serious about learning about them, nurturing them, and protecting them.  

   I could never have guessed that this is the path God would have taken me on, but even now looking back I can see that point A led to point B which led to point C. This is where I am supposed to be, and along the way He has taught me many things. Just like my Dad working hard to turn the garage into a salon, God does not set me up for failure. He wants me to succeed just like my Dad does, and he provides me with what I need to be successful. Just like my Mom's endless patience, God is patient with me, teaching me through my mistakes. Just like I am with the dogs I groom, he never gives me more than I can handle. He will never stress me too the breaking point, and just like some parts of the groom are unpleasant, when I come out the other side I will be happier and healthier for it. God has shown me much much more then this and I hope to share it all with you, but for now,  you ask me how I got here? I suppose I will have to answer in overly dramatic fashion that it was written in the stars; it was meant to be and so it was. Some people may find the idea that there is a design to our lives disturbing. I find it incredibly exciting. Knowing that the only person I can ever truly trust, the only person who will ever love me truly and deeply has everything under control. "'For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'''  Jeremiah 29:11. I'm sure these are the first of many whirlwinds I will have to weather during my lifetime, but I look forward to the surprises and unexpected possibilities. C. S. Lewis said "There are far greater things ahead then any we leave behind." I would have to agree!

How Did I Even Get Here?! Part 5

   So off to school I was. Mom and I made the 12 hour drive in my teensy tiny car. It was an uneventful drive, with the exception of one minor incident in which my mother panicked about the oncoming ambulance two blocks away and pulled some sort of action movie sequence which resulted in my car getting the sense knocked out of it by the curb. Thankfully my car had just been concussed and wasn't actually broken, so we arrived safely at my biggest brothers house.

   The next day was my first day of class and I was so incredibly excited! Unfortunately I was also so incredibly sick. Somewhere between home and school I had picked up a nasty bug. Driving to my first day of class was…interesting, and I remember praying that I wouldn't pass out. As I walked in I was greeted by Tera, the instructor I had talked to on the phone. I was told to choose a station which consisted of a grooming table, and stool, and a tall plastic organizer.

   After everyone was seated, Tera welcomed us all to Western Dog Grooming School, and proceeded to tell us her life story. And what a life she had had! I was shocked that she would tell us, complete strangers, such privet detail about herself. I soon found out that this lady was just an amazing person. She is a lady with a big heart that accepts everyone for who they are with out judgment and expects others to do the same. I was very privileged to have had her for an instructor. We then introduced ourselves, though not to the extent that Tera had, and our equipment was passed out to us. After all kinds of "house keeping", she brought in a Yellow Lab and began to demonstrate how to properly and safely give a bath, as well as how the shampoos and conditioners work.

   This whole time, though I was very interested, I was feeling steadily worse. As soon and the bathing demo was done, I ran to the bathroom and threw up. When I came out Tera looked at me and said "You don't look very good." Somehow I drove myself home, crawled into bed and slept straight until the next morning. I survived off grapes and carrots for the first month of school because for some reason, that is all my stomach would let me eat!

   So this is how my school worked. Western Dog Grooming School is situated in an actual working grooming salon, meaning that we got to work on dogs from the get go. We had two instructors as well as a helper of sorts. Tera was the main instructor, but twice a week Kat came in to teach us the show grooming side of dog grooming, usually bringing a dog to demo.

 Monday to Thursday were practical days in which we would groom dogs up to the level we had been taught, and then the instructors would finish the dogs off and the owners would pay half price for the groom.

                                    


 Friday was theory day on which we learned grooming techniques, patterns, how to read dogs, as well as memorizing every dog and their characteristics in the Canadian Kennel Clubs Terrier, Non-Sporting, Sporting, Working Dog, and Toy groups. This means that Tera would say "What terrier is 12-14" in size, can have cropped ears or un-cropped ears, and comes in salt and pepper, black and silver, or solid black.?" And we would answer, "Miniature Schnauzer". We also learned about K9 health including vaccinations, disease, allergies, oral health, parasites, first aid ect. In addition to everything we had to learn for school, some of us chose to learn extra so that we could take the tests to get certified through what was called then the Canadian Professional Groomers and is now called the Canadian Professional Pet Stylists. As you can imagine school is a blur for me. I made some friends and had a lot of fun, and by the end of three months (yes, THREE MONTHS!) I was a professional groomer, a certified Professional Pet Stylist and was heading home to start up my own business, The Unleashed Boutique!

This is almost the end of the story, but not quite. Check back for "How Did I Even Get Here?! Part 6"

 

How Did I Even Get Here?! Part 1

  When I first started up, people would ask what made me decide to become a groomer. Truth is, I have no clue. There was no growing love of all things grooming, no Ah-Ha! moment, not even a stray thought remotely close to it. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. All I knew is that I hated school and did not want to go from high school right into college or university.

  Graduating was the most exciting and terrifying thing I've done thus far. Graduating felt so final. Like the end of the world as I knew it; and I was completely ill-prepared for the new world I was being released into. Was I supposed to be independent now? Was I supposed to move out and get a job? Was I supposed to go to college? Wasn't I supposed to have everything together by now?! I remember crying when I turned 18 a few months after graduation, because at least I had been 17. Adulthood was coming on fast and the pressure was crushing me.
 
   It took some time, but I finally started to acclimate. I lived at home and got a job in retail while all the geniuses I had graduated with went on to change the world through academia. One day, in the spring of 2010, I was given a sign.  My Mom and I were running errands. As we drove by the local pet store, a large sign was positioned so driver's could easily read it. "Experienced groomer wanted". My Mother turned to me and said the 5 words that changed my life and filled me with the one thing I craved most…direction. "You'd be good at that." That's all she said, and thank God she did!  I don't remember thinking "Perfect! I will be a groomer!" I just couldn't get what my Mom had said to stop resounding inside my head. When we got home I immediately got on the computer to do some research. This completely random career was acctually something that I could envision myself doing and even enjoying!

    After doing some research I found that there were a lot of online courses, a lot of correspondence courses, but only a few schools. I'm sure there are people out there who can learn dog grooming online and stay motivated to do their work under their own steam; that person is not me. Plus, it just made sense to me to learn a hands on skill in a hands on way. There was nothing keeping me from going to school; nothing to tie me down. I found a school in the BC lower mainland that just happened to be a 5 minute drive from my brothers place. I mailed off my application and in a week or so I was asked to come in for a face to face interview. Now, I live 12 hours away by car and 2 hours away by plane from this school; but sure! I'll just pop over for an interview! However my exceptionally supportive parents decided it was a good excuse to visit my brothers and their families. So we booked the interview and hopped on the plane.

   This is not where the story ends, but it's a long story. So this is intermission. Check back for How Did I Even Get Here ?! Part 2.