580 My Second College Experience

I had the idea to write this a long time ago and it has been on my list of ideas for a while, but I didn’t want this to end in a negative, so I was looking for a way to turn this into a positive. I also wanted to make sure I wasn’t just writing to say it was a rubbish experience; I wanted to share something productive otherwise it is just pointless. I like my posts to share experiences as well as the way I got over it or solved the problems, instead of just stating the facts to put someone else down.

I know you are probably thinking, okay just got on with it then. So here goes. The cliff notes version is that I hated the course I took, well I am unsure if it was the course I hated or was due to the people it was run by, I just didn’t enjoy it in the slightest. It killed my love and passion for the activity and changed my feelings about it. It was over three years ago now, so I thought it was now or never to write about it. If I leave it too long, I won’t remember anything, but I didn’t want to write it too quickly as the feelings were raw, it is always better to sit on feelings and think through them. You won’t accomplish anything from your initial response when it comes to situations like this.

I did a makeup artist course at my local college, when I started that course, I loved to do my makeup, to experiment and genuinely enjoyed it. It was all thanks to my amazing drama teacher from my secondary school. I mean I liked makeup before, but I hadn’t found the types of makeup I could do until I was introduced to the opportunity. Makeup is the confidence that you can buy, there are no other feelings you can buy. You can pretty much change the shape and look of anyone with a bit of makeup which you can wash off with a bit of soap and water. It can be a bad thing, but I always believe there is nothing wrong with a bit of makeup in the appropriate situation.

As a teen, I would sit at home playing around with makeup, trying different looks, copying makeup looks from the internet and I spent a vast amount of time investigating. When I first realised, I had a passion I found my favourite YouTube makeup artist. I have spoken about her before, her name is Sarah Amelie. I am pretty sure she could make any makeup product look amazing, she doesn’t mind giving things a go and she does it well every time. I have written about one of her looks before because I loved it so much.

Sarah and my drama teacher were the biggest influences to go into makeup artistry. If I wasn’t using makeup, I was looking for the next bit of makeup I wanted to buy when I got paid at the end of the month. As a result, I picked this course, I mean I enjoyed doing it so much that I may as well do it all day every day and do what I can to get better at it.

I was looking forward to learning new things and getting to use products I would never have touched beforehand, finding the confidence to do other people’s makeup. Sadly, it did the opposite for me, my tutors on the makeup artist course let me down. I was at a time in my life when I had a lot going on other than college, so I was not able to put 110% into college. As a result, my tutors assumed I didn’t care, and that I was lazy so wasn’t willing to be supportive. I know this is not entirely their fault and it wasn’t their problem, but they didn’t even show the willingness to want to help me. They were only interested in helping the outgoing people who wanted to do the crazy full body art and could be there 150%.

Had I completed the course a year or two later I think it would have been successful or at least done better than I did. I am not sure why or what happened during the year, but I lost interest completely. I could not wait to finish the course; I was counting the days. I didn’t like the tutors; the tutors weren’t interested in me. I was ready for it to be done. I truly don’t believe I learned anything new. You were shown once, got to try it once and that was it you were expected to know how to do it. Other than that, no guidance or tips was given. I understand that you were supposed to practice at home, but if you did it wrong the first time in the class, you didn’t have the opportunity to go over it again to get it right, so you were left doing it wrong at home as well.

About two months into the course, I hated to apply my makeup I gave up. My skin took a turn for the worst after having piles of products slapped on daily. 9 times out of 10 the only time I would have any makeup on was at college when a fellow student was practising. I even got in trouble at work for not wearing it, which is a whole other story, terrible I know.

The tutors only wanted to see the big extravagant looks but as a tutor, you should be there for all your students no matter what. Apart from that my tutors and I got off to a bad start because I pretty much wasn’t a kiss-up. I wasn’t willing to go out of my way to do something colourful or big just to get the attention of the tutor. I wanted to learn how to do makeup first and then go on to the big crazy looks. There is no point going to the diving board if you don’t know how to swim, and you can’t go on the diving board until you are confident you can swim to the edge.

The final straw for me was that we were forced to enter a competition which I 100% said no to in the beginning. At the start, it was an option for us and only those who wanted to have to do it. Then my tutor decided it was going to be one of the assessments so we had to do it, I even tried to get out of it because I wasn’t interested in competing for a prize I probably would never use. After this competition, I don’t think I ever spoke to my tutor again because they piled on the extra stress of the competition and when it came to marking at the end I wasn’t even entered into the competition. So, I spent the entire day travelling to the venue (which we were sent to the wrong one), and 2 hours doing the makeup only to not have a chance of being ranked. Even the other contestant’s models were kicking off as they believed I would have won had I been entered. What do you think the tutor said to me? “I’m sorry, I think you should have won”, a bit late and pointless.

It was an utter nightmare; I honestly don’t think I walked away from that course with anything that I didn’t already know. For a long time, I no longer enjoyed makeup, I would rather just not use it but recently I have found my spark for it.

I want to turn this negative experience into a positive one; I used it as a learning curve. It solidified the idea in my head that if you want something you have to do it yourself. You don’t have to rely on anyone else. It did show me I am good perseverance, it showed that once I commit to something I am in it until the end. It also proved that if you love it enough, you will find your way back. It is okay to take a break, if you truly want to do it you will find a way to do it.

Now, to my tutors, if you ever read this, please do not take this as an insult to you. Although it does not sing your praises this is not meant to upset you or sway you from your abilities. It would be great if you could take something from this. Maybe, show a little more support to those who aren’t confident and not willing to go big with the makeup. There are so many types of makeup and styles that there are so many avenues for makeup.