When the first day of school came, I thought my teacher was going to be okay, despite hearing from my older friends that she was a strict teacher. But then, by the end of the period, she asked my class to bring all of our cosmetology tools and equipment by the second and third day, or else she'll just continue on without waiting for those who brought their things in late. Keep in mind, all of my things took up four duffle bags so I brought two bags one day and two the other day, while also carrying my backpack. She already had so many ideas planned that it was going to be a bad thing if we get behind on certain things. Since our senior year was the year we would take the NOCTI and State Board, she pushed us to our limit and had high standards for our work.

Let's talk about the NOCTI and State Board for a bit. Both tests are the same test and format, but for different purposes. The NOCTI was for the students to get a second diploma and the State Board was for the students to get their license. I guess you could say it was easier like that so we didn't have to practice for the tests in two different ways. However, it meant a lot of studying, paying attention, pushing past your limit, and stressing out. There is the written test that would take about three hours and the hands-on test (practical) that's three hours and ten minutes. Practicing for the hands-on test was basically doing the jobs needed for the test, timing ourselves, acting like it was the day of the test, and so forth. We practiced our written test through lectures, quizzes, and regular tests.

Back to my experience, it was really hard to meet my teacher's standards quickly. There has been one or two times where I spent a long first attempt on a hairstyle and when I bring my manikin to my teacher, she'd tell me I didn't try at all and I'm "being lazy" with the style. I can't spend too long on one style but I also can't rush it and I could be struggling with something but she always insists that I figure it out on my own. In the future, of course, I need to figure things out on my own, but with a teacher in the room, that's my opportunity to ask questions.

My class would have Thursdays as our "client" days to help us work on real-life clients with confidence and not just on the manikin to get real feedback. Personally, getting teachers as clients was the best because we make great conversations and they also tip the stylists which is a plus. There was a week where seniors were getting their pictures taken for the yearbook so we had a lot of seniors come in to get their hair and make-up done. When it came to make-up, my teacher kept pushing the student to get a bold look since she believes that it's a "once in a lifetime" look and I honestly would feel so sorry for the client. The reason is because the student can definitely hate a bold look, including myself, on them but my teacher ignores the student's preference.

Since we were getting our license, this meant we were going to have a job in this field some time in our lives. To showcase our work, we had to have portfolios and it was honestly a pain to do. From decorating our binder to taking a bunch pictures in different perspectives, it was a whole mess. In addition, my teacher would have a checklist for us and it counted as a grade. If we didn't have all of the things listed, points were taken off and for some of us it hurted our grade a bit. She also wanted everything in a specific order or else points would've been taken off as well. I still remember the torturous essay she made us do and we only had a week to write it. It consisted of ten topics we already covered in class and each topic needed three paragraphs, including intro and conclusion paragraphs. If you couldn't do the math, that was 32 paragraphs total, taking up 26 pages, and we couldn't print it front and back.

I hope you enjoyed going through my rant and if you got annoyed in some parts, I'm with you too.