The last glowing ember of the Fourth of July fireworks had gone out and as we walked to the car, I ran into two old friends I had not seen since massage school – now a good 16 Fourth-of-July fireworks shows ago.
We compared hairstyles, and weights and marriage and divorce milestones. Then the question inevitably came up: Still doing massage?
Yes, I said proudly. I love doing massage. It’s a very fulfilling career.
This discussion got my interest. Although both these folks still do massage, it seemed like they had long had ambitions to do anything but massage. They had a bunch of different activities: Teaching. Massage products like essential oils. Stints as lifestyle coaches.
I suddenly got the feeling that I must have missed something, being a massage therapist who likes to do massage.
I have to ask: Do massage therapists harbor ambitions to “stop using their hands?” Is hands-on not good enough? Are we stepping on stones to another profession? Do we want to be business people and not therapists?
GREAT topic! I have the same confusion. I adore what I do. I’m looking for ways to massage smarter, so that I can preserve my physical strentgh so that I CAN still be hands-on in 20 years. I’m not sure why some people choose this career.
When I graduated from school I was shocked at how many of my classmate didn’t go on to practice massage. I went to night school and in my class of 13 only 4 of us went on to practice professionally. Everyone else kept their office jobs.
from Sue Peterson: Misha, you are so right! preserving one’s hands is a priority….but I’m not sure this is what these folks had in mind — it almost seemed like they wanted to brag that they don’t “have to” do massage. Heather: I noted a big drop-off in my classmates, too. Lots of bragadaccio, little commitment. what gives?
Very interesting. Why did they go through all that work in school to try to do something else? I think there is a lot of worry about moving in the right direction career wise, when in reality one should find something they love and work hard to keep doing it!