Manning Our Own Boat

Time to let the cat out of the bag. Toby and I are opening our own tattoo shop on Hwy. 290 in Manor. Running his own shop has been a dream of Toby's ever since I have known him. A serious tattoo artist never feels truly successful until he owns his own shop.

I'll be honest, I'm one that believes "if it ain't broke then don't fix it". Over the years I turned my nose up at the idea of him opening his own shop every time he mentioned it.  For 10 years I successfully nipped his dream in the bud before it got out of hand. Bills were paid, kids were cared for, food was on the table, and I wasn't having to help make ends meet for minimum wage at the local grocery store. For my minimal living standards, I was living in the lap of luxury and I wanted to keep it that way.

But.....I love my husband very much and more than anything I want to see him (and us) as happy and successful as we have the potential to be. After all, just to make me happy he did agree to be dragged 500 miles from his comfort zone at my insistence that we would have a better quality of life in a more progressive, open minded, prosperous city.

Operating our own tattoo shop was not a decision that was made overnight or without careful thought. It just so happened that recently some circumstances and serendipity's, if you will, have opened the doors for us to embark on this endeavor sooner than what we anticipated.

When these occurrences first starting aligning themselves I was paralyzed with fear. I inherently knew the ride was about to begin and fear of the unknown took me by the hand. People hate it when they are unsure of something so they don't do anything. They stay frozen. They want to stay put where they believe it is safe and secure. In reality, we are never really safe or secure even if we think we are. Unsuspecting people "playing it safe" loose their jobs and security everyday.

The more I thought about it the more I realized that what I feared more than the fear of the unknown was the fear of failing to meet our highest potential as a family and partnership.  The fear that we would miss out on an opportunity that was calling to us. Did I really want to ignore my intuition and gut feelings? No.  I've done that before and have experienced the disastrous results of ignoring the voice inside of me.

I've also felt a little fire ignited in myself. I'm excited about being able to use my bookkeeping and management abilities that helped put food on my table and a roof over my head for many years before I met Toby. It will be nice to get acquainted with my brain once again.

Whatever the outcome I know this for sure. We will still be the same family we have always been, with just a  new life experience added to our belt notch.

We will survive.