Jason Garcia - The Perfect Touch: A Massage Therapists Guide to Success

Bill and Hilary Clinton, Youth Inaugural Ball, 1996

P resident Bill Clinton saved my life. As a junior in high school I was selected to attend his first presidential inauguration as part of a national leadership conference where 500 high school students from across the nation spent four days in Washington, DC visiting the John F. Kennedy Center, dining with Jesse Jackson, and attending one of the inaugural balls. That same year was when I first heard massage was a profession, and as I think about my career that started in 1997 with over 28,000 massages under my belt, it feels Im coming to a place where I can look back and see what it was that helped me create a successful career in this profession.

My high school principal was quite excited about me representing our state and days before the trip asked me into his office to make a rather bold request. He wondered if I could deliver a gift to our newly-elected president and handed me a wrestling sweater that, although quite patriotic looking in red, white, and blue, was probably two sizes too small for our new commander-in-chief.

I didnt know how I was going to make this happen, but once I saw our itinerary I figured that my best shot would be on the last night during the inaugural ball. There I was in my cummerbund and tuxedo, camera in one hand and sweater in the other. First thing I did was go up to the secret service agent closest to the stage and told him my principal had asked if I could get this sweater to the president as a gift from our high school. He sized me up and then said in a difinitive voice, Theres no way thats going to happen. And just before he walked away, he turned and slowly said Just make sure you dont throw it. I smiled and said okay.

We were four hours into the ball when Bill and Hillary arrived to everyones cheers. I was only twenty feet from the stage, and my arm immediately shot up. I clutched the sweater high in the air, hopeful that he would see it. After he said a few words, he handed the mic over to Hillary to address the crowd and as he scanned the audience he made eye contact with me! He pointed right at me and mouthed the words Throw the sweater while gesturing to do so with his hands. With everyone cheering me on, I tossed it. All of a sudden two snipers popped out of the balcony with scoped rifles, the agents on the floor pulled out their sidearms, and concealed agents came out of nowhere!

The sweater hit Clintons hand but he dropped it purposely as he noticed the commotion he had set off. He began flailing his arms wildly in the air and yelled Put your guns away, everyone put your guns away! The crowd and Hillary fell silent and gazed back and forth at Bill and me while he bent down to pick it up. He looked at the sweater, then at the crowd. In his classic raspy voice, he said, This is what its all about... education. Then he threw it over his shoulders and tied it around his neck. Bob, play the music, he said into the mic and proceeded to dance with Hillary to a Frank Sinatra song as they exited the stage.

This defining moment seemed to have crystallized a future in politics for me. However, after two-and-a-half years at Boston University as a political science major, I came to the understanding that politics was not student government. I decided to leave BU and come back to California to pursue my other dream of doing massage professionallyafter one of my best friends, Omar, mentioned he had an uncle with his own massage business that same fateful junior year in high school.

As I think back, I got into massage simply because I wanted to help people feel better in their bodies. For my year in massage school, we had books to read, were on numbered tracks with set instructors, and even had homework and tests. It seems that my school, like many others, provided me and my classmates with quality massage technique training. The reason all of us had for learning about massage wasnt necessarily to get into it full time. Some wanted to learn about positive touch and the healing arts, while others aspired to get on with a professional sports team. Quite frankly, most of us werent interested in the business end of massage. If we were, Im sure our school would have put more time and resources into it.