Story...

I forgot this in my last post. So, Saturday I totally realized why I turned down every other good opportunity to go to cosmetology school. I got a client that wanted all over highlights and lowlights. At first I groaned and didn't want to do it. Then, when my instructor told me that she formerly had cancer so she had really thin hair, I was even more reluctant. I thought "great, another person who is going to pour all their troubles upon me, and I have to sit and pretend to care." I know, I'm the most selfish, insensitive person on earth. So I went to get her and she sat down and we started to discuss what she wanted done with her hair. I was still -probably noticeably- irritated. Once I got going, I could tell her hair wouldn't take any time at all, because she literally had the thinnest hair I'd ever seen. As I was working, she started to open up to me, it was obvious that she was very nervous and embarrassed by her hair. She told me that she was now 25, and had had cancer since she was 7. She was currently in remission and had been for the past 5 years - the longest she's ever been without cancer. Her hair was finally getting longer, and she felt like she needed a change with it. She proceeded to tell me that she had lost her mother, her aunt, and her grandmother...all to cancer. I couldn't even begin to understand what this girl has been through. She was finishing her GED(due to all the school she'd missed), and was hoping to continue on to college to become a nurse - an ambition I highly respect, because it's something I couldn't do. She was there with her fiance and his siblings. When I asked how long they'd been together, she timidly smiled at me and said, "6 months." She said that although she used to make fun of people who said things like this, she just knew he was the man she was supposed to be with forever. It was obvious that they were head over heels for one another, and it was the most refreshing thing I've seen in a long time. She just had this incredible energy and spirit about her, she was so inspiring. Now, on to the hair. I finished it, and I was personally pretty pleased with how it turned out, and I was really hoping that she would like it. As I turned her back towards the mirror so that she could see the final results for the first time, it was the most amazing thing ever. It was obvious that she felt more beautiful than she ever had. I worked harder than I have in a long time, because I really wanted her to love her hair, and she did. The appreciation she showed towards me brought tears to my eyes. I want to make someone feel that good about themselves everyday. It doesn't matter to me if she tips me, or buys product, or tells her friends who did her hair; what matters is that I made a difference in how she feels about herself, that for a second she could forget about everything bad that had happened in her life, and see on the outside what I knew was on her inside. It made getting up at 6:00 a.m. totally worth it.