Letter to a Friend

I haven't written in a while, sorry about that! I am just so tired after pulling such long hours for weeks at a time at school... but I'm done now, all I've done since then is sleep.


I have finished my school hours! I am DONE with Paul Mitchell The School! Now there is only time standing between me and my License!!!!

Oh man, I took my practical exam a few weeks ago and let me tell you, the most stressful thing I have EVER DONE! It tops everything stressful about high school theatre that we did. Worse than performing when you don't know your lines, worse than being caught on stage when someone misses their cue, worse than being stage manager when backstage the only person who knows how to move some scenery sprains their ankle and you have to find/train someone else before the current scene is finished! (All of which happened to me)
The test wasn't all that technically difficult per say, it was just stressful as all get out! I know how to do hair, I know how to handle and curling iron, roll a perm, hold my scissors, apply color. But everything changes when there is someone there watching you, judging and scoring you.
The most important part of the exam was sanitation and safety. The State doesn't care much if you are a GOOD hair stylist as long as you aren't going to injure anyone or give them some sort of horrible sickness. Every time I thought about it I used hand sanitizer, between every section of the test, whenever I touched anything on my person, any time I dropped ANYTHING (which I did a lot) My hands were so dry by the end of that you wouldn't believe.
I was prepared for the technical side of the exam because my school has a mini class in which you spend a week doing nothing but going over exactly what is on the exam. It consists of; Set Up, curling w/ a curling iron (which they don't have you plug in, just go through the motions of using!) hair cutting, perming, color application, chemical relaxer application, barbering (as in the shaving of the face... the cosmetology and barbering license are now combined) and male hair cutting using clippers w/o a guard and scissors. Each section is timed and the examiners read a script saying nothing but what is written in their book. The test is taken in a big room with four tables, white walls, white ceilings, white floors and no personality. Six candidates take the test at a time with 1-3 examiners.
I took it with three of my peers and two girls from other schools. Seeing these other girls take the test was another testament to me of how PMtS is better than many other of the 100s of schools in Utah.
After the test was completed we were instructed to clean up our things and wait in the room next door, which was a smaller room with six chairs, also completely white. We sat and waited for our results. I was not nervous about the results at all, I was fairly confident that I had passed. Everyone else seemed much less so. There was one girl, not from Paul Mitchell who was sure that she had failed the test. I honestly would not have been surprised if she failed miserably... some of the things she did were ridiculous, and the examiners paid the most attention to her.
It turns out that all of us passed, thank the heavens and sky's above. I think that if I had for any reason not passed I would have not only have been devastated, but I would have questioned my very worth as a hair stylist and wondered if this is really what I want and am meant to be doing with my life... but I passed. And I know that though this may not be the path God chose directly for me, he supports it 100%
Yesterday my dad was in town and he took 90% of my things back to Richland with him. I will be living out of a suit case for the next two weeks. On the 18th of April I have a plane ticket back home to the town I love! I never knew how much I love the tri-cities until I left (and let's be honest, practically anywhere is better than Provo) The smell of the river, the amazing pale almost sea foamy green of the few plants that grow naturally there. The lack of snow. The diversity of religion which insures everyone has an open mind.
One thing I hate about Provo the most is how because there are so many Mormons in the same place they begin to judge outsiders very harshly. There are many self-righteous people who are hyper-judgmental and view everything that isn't to a T on the straight and narrow (or what they believe to be) as evil. Anyone who drinks caffeine is practically apostate, even though there is no church doctrine condemning the consumption of it.

I went on a date for the first time in... almost two years. Wow, I didn't realize it had been that long! A guy in my ward, Ian, asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told him that he should take me on a date.
We went to TGI Fridays and I had ribs, I love ribs. Really I love meat in general but don't eat it often because it is expensive, doesn't keep well (and by well I mean it won't survive a nuclear blast like ramen and mac 'n cheese) and it takes time to prepare, time I don't have (or didn't when I had school)
Then we went mini golfing. The last time I went mini golfing was with my grandma and grandpa Mann, over 10 years ago, probably over 15 years ago. Ian is very competitive and is good at golf (the reason he chose golf, because he knew he could win, lol) I only lost by about 15 points. Lol

Today I took my state board written test, and passed with an 87% It turned out to be much easier than I thought. I am always surprised when I find out how much I actually know... it seems that $14,000 and fiveteen months of school actually taught me something