Believe in yourself - you can achieve anything you want to! by Naomi

So I've done it!!! I'm now fully qualified in Level 2 Beauty so can now offer waxing, manicures, pedicures, brow waxing and tinting and facials. I'm so happy to be able to offer all these treatments now and looking forward to meeting some new lovely clients.

I'm not going to lie, at times it was hard juggling work, college, childcare, revision and practice but my goodness it was so worth it. I learnt so much and met some incredible people along the way, including my new lifelong friend Sarah (pictured with me below), the course absolutely wouldn't have been the same without having her by my side. It took no time at all for us to get chatting and we haven't run out of things to say since!...kindered spirits and so glad to have her in my life now.

If I think back to last summer and how I was feeling about going back to college at this later stage in life, I can tell you I felt dread, worry, anxiety...all the self deprecating adjectives you can think of!! I was convinced I was going to be the "old lady" that no one wanted to work with. I had no idea how I was going to mix with 16yr olds, the thought just filled me with dread. I was worried about being out of my comfort zone, looking silly and just not being very good at anything. Obviously all these feelings are fairly normal and I chanelled my rational self and just cracked on!.....Fast forward to Autumn last year and I realised how silly all those thoughts were. I met the wonderful Sarah who I shared every breaktime with, I had already learnt that 16yr olds are awesome!!! (ok they don't always listen but my gosh they have a lot to give the world and they know soooooooo much about make up!!!) and juggling other life stuff is possible. It can be very tiring working it all out but it is possible. My most important lesson I learnt quite early on was to ask for help. I've never been very good at that but I realised at this stage I just had to! and absolutely no one I asked ever said no. I had to call on people to be my models for treatments, ask for help with childcare and school pick ups, ask my partner to take the kids out so i could have some silence....while I revised I mean, not just silence in general......although that does sound lovely!! But I got so much help from everyone around me and I am so very grateful to my family and friends for all their support.

And of course, I was also incredibly lucky to have the support of this beautiful one! She has shared so much experience and knowledge with me, supported me with everything I need and given me a talking too when my confidence has been failing me! I am so grateful for all the time you've given to help me achieve this, thanks Emma you are one in a million x

I just want everyone to know that however impossible that dream seems, it's not! Nothing can get in the way of achieving what you want as long as you are 100% commited and willing to give it your absolute all, you will have support all around you that you may not have even realised is there right now. Age is not a barrier and I would go as far as saying it is actually a positive as you are more commited and determined and I find the older I get the less I care so much about others opinions of me, so that is a massive help when stepping out of my comfort zone!! If you have a dream, be it opening a cafe on the beach, walking up Kilimanjaro, retraining at 42yrs old!....whatever it is you don't just have to dream it, you can do it! Get that business plan written, start training, apply for that course, do it today and reach for that star x