Staying Busy During The First Week of 2012

This first week of the new year is surely a sign of things to come.

I started my first week of massage therapy school and it was pretty intense. The day after Christmas, I drove over to Redondo Beach and enrolled at Alta Massage College. This week I clocked 21.5 hours of classroom instruction and that includes a day off. Next week I’ll probably be closer to around 30 hours, and the week or two after that I look forward to starting my internship! So far the program is better than expected. On the first day I spoke to Dr. Davis, the anatomy, physiology, and pathology teacher there, and told her about my plans to eventually segue into personal training and oriental medicine. Since that initial introduction I’ve felt that she’s pushed me a lot harder than the other students to answer questions during class and she seems to expect me to ask a lot too. Most of the time her lectures jog my memories of anatomy class (I’ve taken two in ten years) and my short stint in nursing school. In the first week I studied more reiki (I started my reiki studies right before the end of the year) and pregnancy massage. So far the instruction I’ve received has been well worth the money…I am happy I followed my doctor’s guidance and am now on this track.

Tomorrow morning I have an interview to become a personal trainer apprentice of sorts…I’ll still have to study towards certification, but I’ll actually get a chance to work directly with a gym for this. I’m super excited and hope things go well tomorrow, but it’s really more of an initial meet-and-greet to see if we’re a good fit. Fingers crossed! The company is based out of San Diego/OC but is opening up a studio here in west LA. I think it’d be a great thing to do in addition to massage therapy, but if it doesn’t work out I’ll still get to concentrate solely on massage therapy. Either way I think it’s a win-win situation.

Also hosted the first charity group run of the year! I had a 13.1 miler scheduled but I ended up running around 9.3 miles. Still not bad. I spent the afternoon getting my apartment tidy and my fridge stocked for the upcoming week. I did so much traveling at the end of last year — San Francisco, Europe, San Diego, my parents’ house, my boyfriend’s house — that I rarely got to pack and unpack. My stuff was piling up and it was pretty out of control! I’ve tamed it down a bit but still need to get rid of some books so I’ll figure something out. I also stock piled the fridge so that I’d be able to cook at home and pack all of my food for school so that I could save on costs. Finances are a bit slim right now since I’m really dead-set on not taking on any work unrelated to health and wellness, so I have to make the little bit that I do have go a long way.

I spent the month of December pretty lost and depressed, but January feels different. I feel like I’m taking steps in the right direction. I feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants instead of just coasting on cruise-control. I jotted down a ton of to-do lists at the beginning of December and without actively realizing it, I’ve pretty much put them all into motion or completed them. It feels good to feel like you’re on track, even if you don’t know what you’re doing. For now my training has taken a bit of a backseat, but with my schedule now almost set for the next few months I’ll be able to pencil in my swimming, biking, and running. Looking forward to getting back into a routine, even if it is short-lived!