Written by: Rebecca Marroquin, L.E
As children we dream of what we will be doing as adults. The sky is the limit when the harsh realities of life haven’t set in yet and we dream big bold dreams! What we imagine ourselves doing I believe are gifts that align us with purposes in life. If we choose to walk those paths it may not always be the easiest, but I believe can often times be the most rewarding.
I found this to be very much the case in my own life. From as early as I remember I was obsessed with everything beauty, makeup, skincare products, clothes, you name it. I would pretend I was in skincare commercials selling products and makeup, and yes even chopping chunks of my hair at times. (Sadly I’m still hair challenged).
With my natural artistic passion and abilities I set my sights on beauty school to be a make-up artist. This unfortunately did not sit well with the “university educated revolutionist” women in my family.
“Beauty school??’ Mija (daughter in Spanish) you are too talented and smart for that. You need to go to university and one day your work will be hanging in MoMAs all over, you can one day go work at the Louvre in France!!”
“Ewww…Snoooze!” Is what I thought.
“Yea, you’re right! That is great!” Is what I said.
So, when I got older I did what any girl would do in that situation…dropped out of art school, and pursued a career in waitressing moving to Las Vegas! I found a passion for learning different foods, wine, spirits etc. Loved the industry making great money. However I still couldn’t shake the desire of pursuing beauty school, I even got some of my childhood friends to go so I could vicariously live through them.
So what was holding me back???
After my 30th birthday I decided I was going to go for it! By this time my family was pretty much like “Just do something else, other than waitressing!”
Cool!
I started searching Make-up schools in Las Vegas, and kept coming up on Esthetics/Esthetician Certification. Maybe that’s the technical term for “make-up artist”?? I had no idea what that meant.
I finally decided on the Aveda Institute of Las Vegas because well it smelled really good!
About a month through the program I realized this was more than just make-up. The science of the skin just clicked in my head and everything made sense. My mind understood it, and I was thirsty to continue to learn everything I could and completely excelled from there. Eventually I made my way to Texas and continued to pursue my place in the beauty industry. 8 years now and counting, the possibilities are still endless!
A couple years ago I had the revelation that I was working in my calling, in my childhood dreams, and using my God given gifts! How blessed am I that I get to go to work and be in an industry that is so rewarding with helping people both from the outside in and inside out?
Was it easy to get here to this moment? Absolutely not!
Is worth it?? Absolutely!