On Being A Professional Picker

You either love to pick zits or you don’t. If you love it you know how good it feels to get that one good pick. You hit the right spot, feel the edges give, watch the skin swell and then hear the pop as the pressure releases and fluid and matter shoot out. Ahhhh what a feeling. The wonder and the disgust mingle and that one triumph leads to the desperate hunt to find another. Grossed out? Like I said you either love it or you don’t. I happen to love it.

I’ve been a life long picker, but honestly I never thought it would become a career. Then again I never thought a lot of things about my life. I never aspired to be a geek, and yet it is the backbone of my former career and the dirty secret I currently keep. After growing up in San Diego I never thought I’d live in Los Angeles, but after an 8 year sentence of brutal winters and stifling summers in Massachusetts I know the east coast isn’t for me. And I sure as hell didn’t dream of spending heaps of money on an education that spans the globe only to find my true calling as a professional picker. A job that requires virtually no education at all. Yeah life can take you to strange and unexpected places.

The thing is, I absolutely love what I do and can’t imagine doing anything else. I have a serious passion for skin care. It’s what I live and breath. It’s always with me. I carry it around like most women carry around a purse. I see people with skin problems on the street, in grocery stores, in their cars, heck every where and I think, “I can fix that. I can make their lives better.” Which is why making the decision to give up a lucrative and successful career and throw myself into a profession that is looked down on, and pretty much totally misunderstood, was easier than I thought it would be.

Once I let go of all the BS about having a “real” job making six figures but hating your life – what life is left after working 80 hour weeks that is – the decision was an easy one. I have a gift. I can see what’s wrong with skin and make it right. It seemed a real pity to waste that. Sure it helps that I spend all my spare time advancing my education. In science classes learning about product delivery systems and ingredient blending. Reading articles on the latest machines and trends, and then cross checking the data in science journals to research the validity of those trends. Trying out everything, and talking to everyone and anyone who will impart knowledge to me. Sure that all helps, but there is something in me that just knows how to make people look and feel amazing. I recognize it as the gift it is and count my blessings every day that I get to do something I love.