The Journey To Here

If you would have told me years ago I would be sitting on the couch while my toddler naps writing a BLOG POST I would have laughed. What does blogging have anything to do with hair? Stylists order supplies, do the hair, and go home. Right? Wrong. This is kind of a topic for another day, but I have recently learned theres so many ins and outs to being in the service industry and Ive barely scratched the surface. I’m going to go waaaaay back though, and tell you guys how the heck I got here in the first place.

If you would have told me years ago I would be sitting on the couch while my toddler naps writing a BLOG POST I would have laughed. What does blogging have anything to do with hair? Stylists order supplies, do the hair, and go home. Right? Wrong. This is kind of a topic for another day, but I have recently learned theres so many ins and outs to being in the service industry and Ive barely scratched the surface. I’m going to go waaaaay back though, and tell you guys how the heck I got here in the first place.

From the time I was a little girl I always thought I wanted to be an artist. I’m talking pencil and paper kind of artist. Little did I know, I would become an artist, but my canvas would be hair…not paper. As a kid, I loved when my older sisters would fix my hair. It didn’t matter if they curled it, braided it, or simply put it in a ponytail. I LOVED it. My mom had a really big mirror in our entry way, and I would sit on the couch and watch my sisters get ready for school or whatever it was they were pampering for. I was amazed by it.

Once I hit middle school, I knew I was going to be a hair dresser. This soon became my excuse for mediocre grades through the rest of my school career. (sorry mom) Hair dressers don’t really have to be smart anyway, do they? Ahahaha okay. My older sister Teresa had mentioned she wanted to go to beauty school, and I did too because I wanted to be just like her. If you guys didn’t know, I have four sisters and I admire them all deeply. We will write about them another time because I could go on and on about them.

My senior year of high school came, and I could not wait to go check out all the schools. There was one I really really wanted to go to in particular. It was the Paul Mitchell school in Bismarck, ND. It was newer, fancier, and close to home. Also, my sister Camille went to college in Bismarck and I wanted to be just like her too. Duh. I knew it was expensive for one year of school and my parent knew it, too. They didn’t want to crush my dreams, so my mom took me to check it out.

A couple weeks went by and I was still trying to convince my parents that was the school for me. I was set on it. My parents argued with me that it was too expensive. This school was double the tuition of most beauty schools. Not to mention the cost of living on my own in an apartment at age 18. It turned out none of it mattered because guess what…. I was having a baby. My very own baby at the age of 17.

I’m sure I was supposed to feel kind of panicky at this moment in my life. Like my hopes and dreams had been crushed and my life was totally over. I didn’t feel any of that. I still don’t know if it was God speaking peace into me or if I just knew deep down, I would still pursue my dreams. Luckily, I had the most supportive family and boyfriend in the whole entire world. Yeah this was going to be hard, but at least I had my village which a lot of people do not.

August came and we were blessed with a teeny little boy named Jett. I spent a year at home with him and loved every second. Finally, a year later, I got married and went off to school. I say “finally” like I was 35 or something. You guys I was EIGHTEEN. Fast forward almost seven years and here we are! We made it.

Riley and I have been married for almost six years. We both have jobs we love and two kids we love even more. This is just a short story to tell you how I got to where I am now. I can’t wait to share with you guys everything in between those years of growth. Being a working wife and mom, stylist life, all things business, and a little bit of our lifestyle too. All the good, bad, and ugly.

Until then! Xoxo, Annie