Did I come at a bad time?

I think the internet has taken nail art to an entirely different place than it was when I was just starting out as a nail tech. Then again, I'm going on 34 and I got my license when I was 18, going to college for Psych (tch, that worked out well). I had fun with it, it was a job I enjoyed much more than working in an office, but the internet wasn't as huge and social media was...well, it wasn't as great, nor as packed as it is now. I was disappointed when I started having seizures and had to stop working in salons, but I have children, and how they were coping with my illness was far more important to me at the time. I could always find another means of making money, I could always find another outlet for creativity... I was more than disappointed, okay? I just buried it deep, deep into the Abyss. Years pass, and although I never stopped painting my nails, following trends for nail art, polishes, the newest & best things about the nail art world, I wasn't really part of that world anymore. It took a pandemic and a lockdown to get me off my butt and involved again. I started watching tutorials, browsing social media specifically for anything nails. Acrylics & wraps were the biggest things when I was a tech, but my,oh my, have things changed (for the better). I was giddy looking at all the products & videos, just trying to figure out where I wanted to slip back in. So, I went with acrylics, my old go-to. I got a starter kit of a well-known brand and some tips, a practice hand came from Amazon, and I set up my desk like old times...only to break out in a horrible rash! My hands and face swelled up, and a trip to the hospital later determined I was allergic to something in the nail liquid. Since I know what I used is a good, high quality brand, I wasn't worried it was caused by cheap monomer. I don't want to use names, because that's not fair to the companies. I tried a bottle of a second brand equally trusted brand juuuuust in case it was a bad batch the first time around. Nope. Now my local hospital staff think I'm an idiot. So where does that leave me, a nail tech with no means to do acrylics? A broken nail gave me the idea to order some medim length, coffin shaped nail tips. Full coverage nails, so that I could protect my nubby nails while they grew back out. I couldn't just leave them unpainted, so after watching a Simply Nailogical video on YouTube, I did some research on her brand, and immediately fell in love with holographic polish and the HoloTaco brand. I ordered a bunch of their polishes. When I got my batch of HoloTaco,I used non-acetone to strip my nails of the basic nude polish I put on while awaiting my package, and puzzled out a design. It took about an hour (but what decent nail art doesn't?) and I had a set of nails I was proud of. Pictures went on social media, and suddenly I had requests from friends and family for sets of their own. Okay, cool. The next thing I know, I'm trying to start a business based on my sets of press-ons, and come to quickly find out I'm a very small fish in a big, big pond. There are thousands of Instagram accounts, YouTube channels, just so many people plying press on nails, nail art, acrylic sets, and their brands. Do I have a place in this whirlwind of PR, major brands, and veteran nail techs who have had the benefit of not being cut off from the nail world by a diagnosis of debilitating illness? I don't know, but I'm determined to find out. I tell people all the time, I may never have a steady hand, but I have a vast imagination, a strong drive to succeed, and I refuse to quit when things get tough. If those qualities aren't a recipe for going far in life, I'll never know what is. Finding others like me in various groups across social media platforms has been a blessing. It seems the nail art community as a whole is very supportive of one another (you always have a few bad apples, but so does every group), and the people I talk to have been very welcoming and willing to offer advice. It's made me feel more at ease coming back into this line of work, and while I'm still a newbie, I don't feel as overwhelmed anymore. I'll do my best to grow an organic following, get the right kind of attention, and try to help spread a positive message in a very negative world. I'm back, baby, and happy to be here!