We asked some of the brightest folks from within the community to reflect back on their days in school and to share with us a story of when they learned a particularly important or impactful lesson. We’ve shared highlights below.
Jacqueline Edmondson
When I was in graduate school, I was offered a position as a lecturer at a university in the Midwest. Accepting the position meant that I would need to move my family across the country, my husband would need to find a new job, and we would all need to adjust to living in a new place where we had no extended family or friends. Read more>>
Teresa Blount
The thing that impacted me the most or that I learned a lesson from had to be from high school. I recall entering into high school as a subfreshman (8th grade) And not knowing how big of a difference this was from elementary school.
I had to adapt very quickly. I was young and very naive. The issue was I had had a child at the age of 13 and didn’t know that people knew and were judging me based on what they heard. People who I thought were my friends from elementary school no longer wanted to hang around me, talk to me, even be seen with me. Instead of talking to me, trying to find out what the issue was or if I needed some help they laughed at me, talked behind my back, singled me out. I was labeled the easy girl and almost every guy approached me tried to get me to sleep with them. Read more>>
Alex Gilbeaux
The hardest thing I’ve ever had to learn to do is truly create for myself. For no one else. Just me. For the sake of practice. I was born with the natural ability to draw and create. From an early age I learned this was how I could can praise or approval from elders, whether it was my mom, teachers, classmates, I knew this skill was impressive and I would seek approval constantly whether I knew it or not. When I got to high school and college and was taking more serious drawing courses I was pushing my technical skills for the sake of truly honing my craft. I got pretty good at it and again was proud of the approval from this. Read more>>
Tristan Sutrisno
“Say yes to every opportunity” was something instilled in the Paul Mitchell Schools culture from Day 1. I never really questioned the “why”, mainly because I was just genuinely excited to be a new learner in the industry and wanted to get my hands in everything, but ultimately this lesson would be something that would steer the path of my 17+ yr career. Read more>>