the end of an era

So Monday afternoon I got an acupuncture treatment and it was lovely. I left feeling all relaxed and zen and then checked my voicemails to find out that I no longer had a job. What?!? It was quite the blow. The spa that I have worked at for 10+ years closed permanently on Monday with absolutely no warning. I mean, yes, I knew that they had been struggling financially throughout the years, but I thought we were doing better. I'd been busy when I was there. I hadn't heard any talk recently about problems.

I had my last day there and didn't even know it was my last day. No goodbyes. No closure.

At least my last few weeks there were awesome. All of my massages went really well and I was super happy. So that's how I will remember it.

And I have to say, I am rather proud of myself on how I have handled this. It's like I'm a grown up or something. :) But I found out on Monday and then had to take midterms on Tuesday and Thursday that I totally rocked and by Friday I had found a new place to work.

The problem with the job that I just left is that it was my dream job. The other therapists I worked with were amazing and the love and support I got from them made work so enjoyable. Made life so enjoyable. My clients were lovely. It was a healthy, relaxed atmosphere. And they were cool with me working only two days a week.

I scoured the want ads for a while and everything sounded horrible. Starting from scratch just made me want to cry. Dealing with spas that try to force you to sell beauty products to your clients goes against everything I believe in. I finally realized what I had to do... I had to go off on my own.

So now I'm renting an acupuncturist's office on Sundays when he's not there. I have the whole place to myself. I checked it out on Friday and it has a good vibe to it. Not super fancy but it has a good vibe to it. I already set up a webpage and am gonna order business cards tonight. I contacted a few of my regular clients (whose info I had, my boss won't give me any contact info of other clients) to let them know how to contact me if they want a massage.

I haven't even been unemployed a week and already I have a plan. And things are going to be alright.

Change is scary but it can be good, right? It's a chance for me to run things like I want to run them. And give me a taste so I will know if I really want to run my own place when I am out of school or not.

So it's been a big, scary, stressful week. But good stuff is happening.