You've probably heard of this book.
It's a "job-search"book that has been around since the 1970's. I read it. I did the activities. Spoiler Alert! Animal communicator was not listed as a potential job match.
Every few years, I had been questioning whether what I was currently doing, middle-school teacher, was the right thing for me, or if it was "all there was" for me. So, I'd find a survey, quiz, or a book that would help me REALLY get to the heart of what my true passion was, and how I was to achieve it. Unsuccessful in my quest, I continued reading things that made me happy, books about animals. I found books about the human-animal bond to be the most inspiring and interesting to me. I found more and more information on intuitive communication, which, up until that time, I had thought was something that only certain people were capable of. I was wrong. I could do it too.
I found that using my intuition "on purpose" did not come easily for me. I was great at those "gut-instinct" type of intuitive hits, but learning a process and finding the path to what I truly wanted to be able to do took me a few years. One of the hardest parts to this process was that I didn't feel like I could tell anyone what I was doing. I was on my own, until I wasn't.
Without sounding cliche or turning this into an ad for the Danielle MacKinnon School, I have to give credit where credit is due. It is there that I truly found my niche, my people. It is within that community that I have been able to try new things, to let down my guard, to become vulnerable, and where there are others just like me, working on the same skills and the same need to believe in ourselves and our abilities.
The process of completing my requirements to become a Certified Professional Practitioner has been a contemplative journey requiring much self-examination and soul-searching. I was required to "put myself out there" and advertise myself as an Animal Communicator. That was one of the biggest hurdles. I had never advertised myself as anything but an extremely sarcastic middle school teacher who spent time volunteering at an animal shelter on the weekends. And now I have this.
I am grateful to everyone who has helped me along the way, from Danielle and my classmates, to my wonderful friends, and friends of friends, who have offered their time and their animals to my practice.
I never figured out what color my parachute was. But I did figure out another way to soar.