In years past, last weekend would have been the NDGAA's GroomFest. I only got to attend the last year, when it was held in Virginia, but that show will forever hold a place in my heart. It was the first time I ever felt like a "Real" groomer.
I wasn't born into grooming, I never did 4H or Junior Showmanship, We never really owned a dog until I was about 9 and even then their grooming only ever consisted of maybe hosing them off in the tub or backyard with a hose. I fell in love with grooming accidentally; it was never a natural road for me to take.
So I started off my first 8 years or so of grooming feeling like I was just winging it. I'd go to shows and see these impossibly beautiful grooms, come home and produce this:
 |
| Not An actual Bichon |
At the time I worked for corporate, the atmosphere and policies were very different and I was discouraged by both management and my co workers from competing. The logic was they did not go so why should I. They tried and failed and I would too.
I am here to tell you, if you want it, do it. Maybe you fall in love like I did, maybe you decide it isn't for you... but don't ever let someone else's experiences discourage you from trying something out for yourself. It took me leaving corporate to finally be brave enough to grow on my own but you can grow anywhere if you nurture yourself.
So fast forward to June 2014 this is my fifth show in Entry/ Div C., and I've had a lot of success in those shows... I've placed in 3 of the last 4, and had started my certification process with NDGAA, and was by the time of GroomFest, a Non Sporting NCG. I owned my salon, and it just won Philly's Hot List top honors. Some would say I'm on fire but I spent most of the time feeling like a fraud.
I always wore the "corporate groomer" chip on my shoulder. If you've never been a corporate groomer it's a hard feeling to explain, but sometimes other groomers can make you feel less than. That just because you started at corporate, or work at corporate, you aren't a real groomer. That corporate groomers are the cause of all dog injuries, the reason groomers aren't licensed or why the industry is not taken seriously.
It is never a direct insult as much as it is stated as a hurtful stereotype, and it is unequivocally untrue. Yes, many people that should not be groomers pick up their first pair of clippers in a corporate salon, (or at a school, or a private shop too) but just as many groomers that are amazing and talented and passionate work corporate. This sentiment was far more prevalent a few years ago, before the corporations started putting together their own competitive teams, but still lingers whenever "people who shouldn't groom" are brought up.
As I had said earlier in the post, prior to GroomFest 2014, I had placed in almost every show I entered. The one I did not place in was Intergroom 2014. I spent the majority of that weekend a crying mess, hungry, tired, in way too many competition classes with dogs that had way too much hair.
So here I am, in the poodle competition ring at GroomFest, I had just won third place in sporting in the morning, and passed my sporting certification practical on Harold, a setter, but just barely and it had been all that I thought of while grooming my poodle, thinking what a fake I was.
I had had so much early success that I had not yet learned to shake off the disappointments, and I carried a lot of the anxiety that I felt at Intergroom to Virginia that many weeks later. I was growing my talent like a weed, pursuing every educational opportunity, and basically taking my career from 0 to 80mph in 30 seconds still feeling like a total failure. A couple of small road bumps and I was in the mind frame that my grooms were never good enough, that I didn't know what I was doing, and was starting to succumb to the voices in my head that were telling me I should pack it all in and give up now.
And then this happened:
I won honorable mention in poodles. Yes I had already won "real placements", but poodles... poodle class is something else. To place in poodles, or to even be considered... well you have won in the biggest most competitive class there is (at some shows it can be close to 40 competitors in the ring). Poodles take all the elements of grooming you need to achieve; balance, symmetry, style, and finish and elevate it to the next level.
Over my almost 6 years of competing I have only placed in poodles two times, won this award of merit, and made the cut 3 other times. This was my first recognition in poodles, and in that moment it lifted me back up. Truth be told it's probably why I think so highly of placements in poodles.... I wasn't in consideration for 3rd of 5 people and "got close enough", I was considered for 3rd out of around 20 poodles and my effort couldn't be ignored... It shut the voices up and made my heart swell, because I also got to share the honor with a woman I had gotten very close to over the previous year.
Jay would later ask if I was really that upset; I told him the truth, this ribbon meant the world to me. It still does. Most of my trophies and plaques are in storage right now, but this ribbon, it hangs proudly on my wall, right next to my favorite "win" photo of all time.
That ribbon, this moment, it saved me from myself.
From giving into my fears and anxieties, from giving up something that has for half a decade brought a lot of laughs, meaning, and friendships into my life. I can't imagine where I'd be today without grooming competitions and the friends I have made through them and I'm glad I don't have to.
No comments:
Post a Comment