The Dragontree

Everyone has a passion.  Whether it is a passion for art, for health, for beauty, family, the environment, every person has that one thing that is a driving force in their life and that they can always rely on to bring them joy.  For me, my passion is education.

Growing up I hated school, although what child didn’t?  It was long, boring, and I would much rather be outside playing with my friends or playing video games than sitting at a desk listening to old people go on and on about things I didn’t care about.  That attitude started to change once I was in high school.  The classes got more difficult, the responsibilities were greater, and deciding what I wanted to do with my life was slow becoming a reality – since college was just a short distance in the future.  I developed a love of theatre, music, and story-telling while I was in high school.  Never the doing part of any of it, but the learning about the history, the theory, and the possibilities each offered.

College is where I truly found my passion for learning.  I went to RIT in Rochester, NY – and I could never make up my mind about what to study…not because nothing fit me…but because there was so much that interested me and so many possibilities.  I settled on a major in International Hospitality and Service Management, which is how I eventually found myself in the spa industry, but that was never enough to tie me over.  Throughout my four years at RIT, I studied marketing, business organization, psychology, human resources, food preparation, Italian history, public policy, the list goes on and on.  While I was in college I also learned how to sew, paint, and decorate not to mention an slew of important social issues and techniques I learned from watching and learning from the people around me.

After I graduated, I felt like there was so much left to learn…but no way to really learn it.  Which is why, just 9 months after graduation, I am going to begin going to the Aveda Institute of Portland to learn esthetics.  There is nothing greater to me than deeply learning about a topic that interests me, this topic being skincare.  Since I started in the spa industry, skincare has been my primary focus and I couldn’t be more excited to learn all about it!

Needless to say, my education will not end once my time at Aveda is finished.  If there is one thing I know that makes me feel joy and fulfillment…it is learning.

-Kevin G. (Retail and Marketing Director – Portland Locations)