This blog is about ME, my journey from bored desk worker to ninja bench presser and soon to be Personal Trainer.

So lets start this off like any good AA Meeting and I will introduce myself. HI!! I am Michelle Hickey. I am 35 and I’ve decided now is the time to completely change my career and start on a new exciting ( Also Scary) path. How did I come to this decision ? Well read on…………

Mid June last year I lost my job. I worked in Clerys and as I am sure everyone knows, unless you’ve been living under a rock, it closed in quiet a dramatic and unexpected fashion. There had of course been rumours flying around for weeks if not months before it all happened. Everyday we would check RTE’s website for breaking news of a sale. Those of us that had accepted the company was going under were just waiting to lose our jobs others believed it would continue on and someone would swoop in and save us.

The month before closure we got a notice on our desks confirming that yes the company is being sold and that we would be seeing people around the place, not unlike a house being sold out from under then tenants feet. We started seeing suits walking through the office and builders measuring up in the hallways. At that time all we knew is it was being sold but we didn’t know who to. When news broke that one of those was Deirdre Foley we all became a little more nervous. With her history of ruthless take overs ringing around the store and how the media was portraying her we were hoping it wasn’t going to be her. Check out her evil bitch face below 🙂

On the Friday of the closure I had took a half day. I had left early that day to get my hair done. I only arrived at the Hairdresser and found a text on my phone. It was from one of the girls and they had sent me a picture of a letter that they had been given. It confirmed that the company had indeed been sold and it had been sold to Cruella Deville herself Deirdre Foley of Natrium. The thing that we had been waiting to happen for well over eight months was finally happening. My first thoughts were ‘well its done now, my job is gone but I will be OK, It will take a few months to wind down the company’. BOY was I wrong. I got home around 5.30pm and heard my phone beep, I got another text. It read ‘We have been told to get our belongings and gather at the main stair case’. Ten minutes later I got another saying ‘ We were told the company is gone, its been liquidated and we need to leave and the liquidator will be in contact’. And like that my job was gone.

I have worked in accounts, advertising, customer service, temping and stock control jobs since I left school at 18 years old and its really all I knew. Choosing what was next was not going to be easy. Well I say not easy meaning I knew what I wanted to do I was just to shit scared to do it. Ive been a client in Fit Studios Fairview for nearly 3 years and I take part in TRX classes and for the past year some personal Training with the wonderful, talented and amazing Jenni Murphy. One of the reasons why I want to be a PT and have very high standards to live up to is because of this lady. I logged on to NTC (National Training Centre) daily if not twice daily with every intention of booking my Personal Trainer course but each time I got up the courage this little voice told me not to do it. I kept thinking I am not going to be good enough, how can I go from working in an office to being a Personal Trainer?????? Would I be able for all the studying? Would I be able for the exam? I only booked a spot on the course a week before it started and even then I was still telling myself its not for me. And that was only with much encouragement from the most amazing support network ( I recommend you get one if you don’t already have one) so my husband who is supporting us through me starting on my new career path, amazing mentors (Jenni as I mentioned and the gorgeous Aimee Kershaw also from Fit Studios, Sinead Beasly who is just the best, and cant forget the boys Steve and Warren).

I can honestly say its one of the best things I have ever done. Our course is made up of Anatomy, Nutrition, Exercise to music (Think 80’s Jane Fonda Aerobics) and Resistance training. The tutors and students in my class are the best. I am loving the studying and learning more in depth into Nutrition and how the body works. And best of all I’ve decided to no longer listento that little voice telling me not to do things and start facing my fears. I will do a full blog post on the course for anyone thinking of doing the same.

So that’s me. Desk worker to Bench Presser and LOVING IT. Living the dream.