20+ years as a Massage Therapist, and yup I've seen it all!

Hi my name is Rosario Cesario and I am the owner of The Pure Escape Massage. I wanted to start writing this blog to give you an inside look right from the start of what it was like to go back to school in my late twenties and discover not only my career path but my life's true journey. The story that I am going to lay out for you in all its honesty has twists and turns, happiness and heart break. It will include big life moments that at times brought me to my knees and made me question everything I thought I new about myself. This 20 year odyssey has allowed to me discover who I am, the good, the bad and the ugly. I continue to learn new things about myself and I have come to realize one thing, every choice I make, big or small, right or wrong has made me into the person I am today. It has taken me a long time to say this but, I like that guy whos looking back at me. This is my story, I hope you like it.

I can still vividly remember the day I decided that I wanted to go back to school. As I sat down at the end of my shift from another epic night of glorified servitude. I couldn't decide what hurt more, my feet from running endless plates of over priced Greek food, or my pride of having just served my high school guidance counselor. As she was finishing the final fork full of her NY Cherry Cheese cake she finally figured out why I looked so familiar. The look on her face said it all once she realized who I was. Her parting to me as she was leaving iced it that night when she said, "I thought you would have done more with yourself by now".

As I sat there counting my haul of service glory one crumpled five dollar bill at a time, I also thought to myself, maybe I should have done more by now. It had been 6 years since I last attempted academia. That consisted of 2 years of random University Arts classes, and many many beer bashes. A solid 2.5 GPA and no clue of what I wanted to do in life, had me calling it quits back then. I was just starting to exploring the possibility of going back to school, no real direction or thought, just exploring. I'm sure another rum and coke from Marshal, who was working the bar that fateful night would help me figure things out. By the time I finished my fourth after work drink, that that sorry look and scathing line was replaying over and over in my head like a broken record. I figured one more double rum might help me forget what she said or at least numb the pain I was feeling a bit, but I was wrong. What it did do was give me the kick in the ass I needed to get started in the right direction.

Serving was fun, I loved it. The instant gratification of dollar bills in hand, late nights of parties and easy living was a great time in my life, but it was coming to an end. I needed to focus on a career. Working for tips had its advantages, tax free instant cash, whoop whoop, but I wanted more, I wanted to do something that mattered. I also new that what ever path I was going to take I was going to be my own boss. Owing my own business would be part of the master plan. As delusions of business grandeur danced in my head the plan was coming in and out of focus. Another rum wasn't making the picture any clearer (dam you Marshal) but that night the ball was rolling and I felt a shift occurring.

In the days that followed I started to make lists of possible career choices. I would write down what my likes were, what I was passionate about and what made me happy. Doing this helped me narrow my choices down to 2 options that I could see myself choosing as a career. Chiropractor or Physiotherapy. Many more lists were made, pro's and con's, cost of school, time it would take to finish just to name a few. The last one was a big factor for me. I wasn't a young buck anymore. Becoming a Chiropractor meant getting a science degree first and then going to Chiro college. Physiotherapy was not going to be any easier. I needed to get my GPA way up just to get a shot at applying into the faculty. I was looking at 6 to 8 years of hard work regardless of what I chose, but for the first time I felt I had a direction and it felt good. It all changed a few weeks later. The universe heard my plea and responded.

Life has a funny way of changing directions on you. The one thing I learned when I was young was to just roll with it and figure things out as they come at you. I have always loved the feeling of things coming at me a hundred miles an hour. When I served tables and they slammed your section they called it being in the weeds. You are in deep and cant see a way out. I used to love watching other servers crumble when it happened to them. Some of us would antagonize fellow servers by singing them a song we made up. For instance, If Rob got slammed with tables we would follow him around not to help him, god forbid, we reveled in his pain, we would sing this to him, "Rob is in the weeds, Rob is in the weeds, he's in so deep he cant get out, Rob is in the weeds! Second verse same as the first". Everyone's turn came around to hear that anthem, some servers would lose it when we would do it to them, but me I loved it! That feeling of utter chaos was exhilarating to me as I got slammed, some how I always made my way out the other side.

As we wrapped up another Saturday night servathon, (at this time I had left the Greeks for a Prime Rib Steak house) we had a party to go to. It was a birthday party for one of my oldest friends Teresa (you will always be older then me). I almost did not go, as I was tired that night. Thankfully it was close to where I lived and I figured I could duck out if wanted to and be home quickly. This party changed the course of my life and set me on the path that I continue on today. That night I ran into a friend from my University days named Mario. As we started talking he asked me what I was doing now, we had not seen each other for quite some time. I told him that I had made the decision to go back to University and that I was going to go into Physiotherapy. He told me he was in Massage Therapy. The curriculum was similar to the Physio. program at U of M. And it was a condensed 2 year program instead of 4. I remember this next part so vividly as he said, "you should look into it, its the next up and coming thing, it's really awesome". Boom, there is it! After giving me some more information to digest, I now had another program to consider, or at the very least to look into. I always think back to the circumstances of that night. What if I had not gone to the party? Life can change so quick, take it as it comes and enjoy the ride.