Graduation Day: Not an end but a beginning
Graduation Season
It is that time of year. Graduation is in the air. I do not enjoy attending graduations. I think it is because I am a Z. I have had to sit in the back and wait until everyone else has graduated before it is my turn. As a parent I have had to wait in the same manner. One day I will attend a graduation in which the commencement speaker is a Z and as a nod to him/her they will pass out the diplomas from the back row. That is a graduation I will be happy to attend.
My son is to graduate 8th grade next week. I will attend his graduation. I am sure at some point the speaker will mention the idea that graduation is not an end but a beginning. That is why they call it commencement. You are not ending this. You are starting whatever is next.
Never has that concept been more appropriate than it is in the case of cosmetology school. While this is graduation season we in our industry recognize two important differences in cosmetology school graduation. Firstly, students graduate every day. Classes start roughly every month in most schools. The rate of accumulating hours varies from student to student. Even the students who started the day you did may graduate in different weeks or even different months from you. There is always a graduation happening. Second, you never really graduate form learning in the cosmetology industry.
A business that is tied to fashion and trend is changing every season, or today, even faster. The needs, demands and desires of a clientele can and do change with the day and the week and the celebrity of the moment. In order for a stylist to keep up with all this a constant flow of updated technical information is needed. Classes, hair shows, webinars, on-line video, blogs like this and more are required to feed this need for information.
The exciting thing about this need for never ending learning is that if you buy into it you will never stop getting better at what you do. I am a better haircutter than I was in February 2012. I am not as good a haircutter as I will be in September 2012. I know this is true because I have played out this process for years.
This is my first posting here since my big job change of June 1, 2012. I have taken on a new position as the education sales manager for Marianna Industries for their schools division. This is a big opportunity for me to put both feet solidly into the cosmetology school end of the beauty business. It is an area that I have been involved in all along, but now will be a primary focus. I look forward to working within the cosmetology school industry to keep the learning going long past graduation day, whenever that day is for you.
