Piper McLane, a recent FSM graduate, explains her reason for choosing our school, her experience going through the massage program, and her hopes for the future.
Please introduce yourself
My name is Piper McLane. I was raised in Virginia but I’ve lived most of my life in Wisconsin and I just came down to Florida for the school.
Why did you choose the Florida School of Massage?
Massage is always something that I’ve been interested in. I guess I always felt more at home with hands-on trades rather than the typical school route. It actually turns out that my mom went here in ’93, so it’s kind of like a legacy. That’s how I’ve got to know the school, she loved it. I’ve been a part of a community very similar to this and it’s definitely a community. It’s incredibly supportive and it’s also very inviting – it’s easy to bring people back here and to invite others to come.
Having just graduated, are you happy with your decision to come here?
I feel like I made one of the best decisions of my entire life. It’s been a journey for sure, within myself, as well as learning about bodywork and just becoming so interested in the human body. We are maps in ourselves and there’s so much geography on us and just so much history in our tissue. It’s really cool to get to feel that and get to learn how to feel that in other people.
What was your favorite class?
My favorite class is probably Kinesiology, even though it is the most difficult. I feel like I learned the most that I get to bring into the practice of hands-on massage. It’s really helpful to know where all the muscles are, to know their actions. But I guess that’s more of a linear class so either Kinesiology or communication skills because learning to communicate with people is so essential especially in this profession, where you are really getting vulnerable with somebody and being able to communicate in a nonjudgmental way is really important.
What do you feel like you’ve learned going through the program?
I’ve definitely gotten a lot from coming here. Not only learning more about self-care and the importance that it has but also just learning more about the human body is really cool. It’s so applicable in everyday life and as well as in massage. Just learning about it at such an in-depth level and applicable level I think has been really beneficial. I definitely have grown here. I feel a lot more comfortable with the knowledge that I have. I chose to come here instead of continuing with college and I think that that, for me, was a great choice.
What is something you’ll miss at FSM?
The loving and accepting community definitely the community here and the people. I think that the teachers and the students and just the whole atmosphere is really what makes FSM FSM and that’s what I’m gonna miss the most. After graduation, I will be leaving Florida, unfortunately from all the friends that I’ve made in massage school. I’m hoping to take what I’ve learned here and bring it into like an outdoor environment or like an outdoor setting and help people who want to get into the outdoors and maybe because of physical problems that have limited them from doing so. I’ve applied to a couple of remote resorts. Some of them are in Alaska and Colorado, Some are hot springs in other countries.
