To say that my parents were not thrilled when I decided to go to cosmetology school is an understatement. They were absolutely mortified. I was going to a good one, but they didn't care. The Aveda beauty school, you see, was not a prestigious institution. My family had been going to Princeton University for about three generations now, and beauty schools were out of the question. They did not see cosmetology as a respectable field. Like many people, they assumed it was just something for high school dropouts to do. What they didn't realize was that beauty schools were my passion. It was not just an easy job for me to get. It was something that I wanted to do for a career.
What bothered me most about the reaction they had to my beauty schools decision was the venom in their eyes. It almost said to me that, if I were to go to beauty school, I would not be their son anymore. The weird thing is that they have stood by me through thick and thin. Beauty schools were out of the question, but when I was suspended for getting in fist fights, they barely punished me at all. It was as if, as long as I was doing something that was considered respectable for men to do, I was alright. When I decided to go to beauty schools, however, it was something different. They didn't say it outright, but it was clear that they had suspicions about my lifestyle. I didn't care. It was what I wanted to do, and it was what I was going to do.
It turns out the beauty schools did not work out quite as I had thought. Don't get me wrong – I loved the work. The problem was that it was not something that I could see myself doing for 10 or 20 years. I finished the beauty school that I was attending, got a job, and used that to pay my way through college. Beauty schools were just a temporary phase after all. Nonetheless, I am glad that I made the decision that I did. If I had not tried out going to beauty schools, I never would have known if I was making my own decisions. I would not have been able to participate in college, because I would have assumed that I was only doing it because my parents wanted me to. By trying out beauty schools, however, I was being my own man.
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