Have you ever had someone tell you what you should be when you grow up? My mom said I should be a writer. Everyone else said “massage therapist,” in one way or another.

Growing up in restaurants, I’ve spent a lot of time around people in consistent pain, whether it was aching backs, sore shoulders, or tension headaches. I was one of them, for about 20 years, serving, cooking, and managing. And (whenever time allowed) helping in a different way.

I couldn't count on all my fingers and toes the amount of times I heard “when I finish bringing these plates, will you do something about my back? It’s awful, and I don't know if I can make the rest of the shift.”

Somewhere in 2015, with an unemployed husband at home, with two growing boys and only my part-time job to support us, I got brave and bought a travel massage table on Craigslist, printed a handful of “business” cards on Vistaprint and started handing them to the people I worked on for free all the time: my coworkers.

One of them asked me a very important question: “Don't you need a license to do this?”

I said, “Do you?”

The answer is Yes. A resounding Yes, and for many good reasons. So, off to school I went, to figure out Why when someone said ‘my shoulder hurts,’ my hands reached for the back of their neck. Turns out, they're attached.

An intense 8-months of 5 days a week of school, 6 days a week of closing shifts at work, and trying to keep a 7 and 4 year old alive later, 2016 brought a license, a new job, and a case of Right Place, Right Time to introduce me to CranioSacral Therapy.

2017 brought a divorce, a change of scenery, and return to the comfortable security of a kitchen.

2018 was a new house, a new partner, and new deeper friendships.

We All know what 2019 brought… and at the end of 2020, disillusioned with being an “essential worker” and coming back from a maternity leave for Baby Girl #1, I walked back into the massage therapy world.

Now, in 2024, after one more baby girl to make two even pairs, I'm back in downtown Covington, passing the oyster bar I used to take drink orders at in my mom's apron (though it has a different name now) and doing what I was always meant to do.

Maybe some day, I'll finish that book I started, too.

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