The past few months at Toni&Guy have been life changing. I have been able to grow not only as a person but also as a hairstylist. I’ve been loving being able to express my creativity here, improve my skills that I already have, and being able to learn new techniques. I can service clients at the school, give out hair cuts, and style outs. Soon I’ll be allowed to do color on clients. When I don’t have a client, I’m giving my mannequins a new hairstyle everyday. As a full-time student, some days have been harder than others, but I’ve had the best peers and teachers supporting me and helping me get through it. I love the staff from Toni & Guy, as they have been so helpful in helping me learn new things and improve in the skills that I already had. They’ve shown me what I’ve been doing wrong, taught me how to fix those mistakes and how to avoid making them in the future. They’ve also taught me to see mistakes in other people’s hair and how to fix them.

Since there isn’t a campus at the school, I’ve been living in an apartment. Trying to adapt to city living has been an interesting experience, but I’ve been enjoying learning how to navigate the world on my own. Though I will say that living on my own has been difficult. Not having roommates or my parents around has been very different for me. I’m used to always having people around. Though I have been loving this time to myself, it’s helped me focus and make sure I stay on top of my work. When I can, I go home to Martha’s Vineyard and visit my family and some weekends I work at Maggie’s Salon. I’m very grateful for Maggie and the girls for teaching me a few tips and tricks before I went to school. Most of all I am very thankful for MVYouth for supporting me. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I am now one step closer to achieving my dream.