Hello everyone and welcome to my blog!
Decisions . . . Decisions . . . Decisions . . .
Hello my name is Tia, I graduated from an online high school in May 2013 and like most high schoolers it was a day that I was waiting for for a long time. So after graduation I took a well deserved break for a few months and didn't really put a whole ton of thought into what I wanted to do as far as school, but it was always in the back of my mind. While out with my wonderful dad one day for lunch, he asked me "What do you think you want to go to school for?" and I thought well crap I'm not too sure. I always hated school because I was never interested in what was being taught, I was smart don't get me wrong, but I am a creative person and I knew that traditional academics and college wasn't for me. We talked for a while and I realized that I should pursue cosmetology. It was something that I was always interested in and kept coming back to through high school when I was floating around with different career paths. It is a creative and hands on career/education and it's something that I know I would love. What's that saying, "If you do what you love you never work a day in your life." Most importantly it is a field that cannot be automated or outsourced, the world will always need hairdressers. Ultimately I want a family one day and this is something I can do out of my home and stop and start easily. Luckily I have the most amazing supportive parents ever and they support me 100% and they know what an amazing career cosmetology is.
The Search Begins
So with the support of my parents I started looking into different cosmetology schools in my area. Unfortunately the closest one to me was about 45 minutes away so doing this was going to be a heavy daily commitment. I started looking into the school closest to me and it was OK but then I uncovered the holy grail (in my opinion) of cosmetology schools,
Toni and Guy Hairdressing Academy specifically the Scottsdale, AZ Academy. This school was about 15 minutes farther, but I knew if I am going to commit so much of my time and money, I wasn't going to settle because I wanted the best. I will have a separate post on why I chose this school but I just want to get you up to speed at where I am at now in the mean time. This place was everything and even more than I knew I wanted. I took a tour of the school in the beginning of November last year and fell in love as soon as I walked in, it's all white, so high end and glamorous, and had super upbeat music playing. All the students wear solid black and the entire environment just screamed high end modern education. I toured the school and decided that day that it was the school for me. One thing I loved was that the admissions administrator actually encouraged me to check out other schools because they are so confident in their quality of education, and that you would see the difference in quality with Toni and Guy being the winner. She could not have been more right!
I Enrolled!
So a few days later I came in, took the entrance exam (the Wonderlic Basic Skills Test to determine the student’s ability to be trained in the courses offered), met with financial aid and contracted for enrollment. My original start date was for January 2014 but I am now starting in April, now let me tell you why. My case was a unique instance so you shouldn't have trouble with this. My dad is a disabled Navy Veteran so he has full Veterans Association disability coverage and since I am his kid, I receive benefits as well. One of those benefits is that I can get education financial assistance as a dependent, which means with grants included, our only out of pocket expense so far was like $350 for enrollment deposit + application fee. I can pretty much go to school for free right now and I give all the thanks to God and I feel so blessed. When I originally enrolled, the school was in the process of applying with the Veterans Association to be able to receive education benefits from people like me. If you're familiar with the VA they take forever to process applications for anything, so the school finally got approved this February and I just had to resubmit my application with the VA for financial aid. So I should be set to start in April. After i'm approved I have to re-contract for my new start date and it's all a go!
What's Next?
I plan on doing posts on specific things like what the school is like, my schedule, what I get in my kit etc, and weekly updates on what we covered that week in class. Post might be more frequent depending if we have an event or something big in class. I hope that my experience can help others whether your considering this career, school or both. Feel free to ask questions, I would love to help anyone!