Guest post by Cheryl Smith, a TUBC student at our Rockford campus.
Hi my name is Cheryl and I’m currently attending TUBC in Rockford, IL (almost ready to graduate). I was enrolled in the esthetics program in 2007, but had to leave for medical reasons. I made the decision to come back to TUBC because I continued to hear great things about the school. I ended up enrolling for the part-time Esthetics program in 2013. I chose Esthetics because I’ve always had a huge interest in skin and make-up. In the Esthetics course you do learn a lot in a short period of time. Some of my favorites we learned about were the make-up. I learned how to make fake cuts and wounds like they do in the movies. It’s actually pretty neat. You also get to make your own make-up. Like custom foundation, blush, eye shadows, even lip gloss and lipstick! It was by far my favorite. You’ll also learn about waxing & different facials and how electricity can actually help the skin. Right now I’m hooked on the micro-current and how beneficial it is.
I will say, it did at one point start to get overwhelming for me because I was taking a much bigger and more time-consuming schedule then what I was used to, but I was able to overcome that and move past the stress. I spoke with a lot of TUBC staff, ones that were here on the Rockford campus and staff from other campuses. All of them gave me words of encouragement to keep going. Their words, coupled with the desire to change my life for the better, propelled me forward. I want to be able to do my own thing some day and not have to work for someone else my whole life. I would love to be able to work out of my home or even travel to someone’s home and offer the same services that you’d get in a spa.
Here I am a month away from graduating. Let me tell you, it feels incredible to be able to accomplish something that was such a struggle for me for so long. It feels even better when you accomplish something knowing there were people out there (back at home) that were expecting me to fail because they knew I was taking on such a huge schedule. I know it’s a bit corny but a good friend of mine would just say to me, “Cheryl, just keep swimming, just keep swimming” when she knew I was struggling. And I did just that. Oddly enough it helped! I would say that to myself when things started getting tough. My point to all of this is NEVER EVER GIVE UP!!! No matter what obstacles you encounter while you’re here go talk to a teacher or someone because they will do whatever they can to help you succeed. They have your best interest and want what’s best for you. All of the staff are so friendly and are easy to talk to. I’m so glad I chose to come back TUBC. I will truly miss everyone. Before I go I just want to say “thank you” to my teacher Ms. Amy and all the other staff members of TUBC for not giving up on me. TUBC has been such a great experience for me, not only for the schooling needs, but I’ve also met some great people and friends along the way!