Read my story.

Growing up

As a young girl growing up in a small town in southern Vermont I became very interested in our state insect, the honeybee, with Melissa meaning honeybee in Greek I felt a sincere connection to them and wanted to learn all I could about these mysterious little creatures. The first job I ever had was on the local organic vegetable farm. Through this great job it was very easy to learn about honeybees and their importance.

Bees became my first love.  

In my senior year I became the vice president of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) for my high school. When I graduated in 1998 I went on to study agriculture and self sustained living at Sterling College in northern Vermont.  Agriculture and farming were my passions and I was so convinced they were going to be my future, but like most young adults I didn’t actually know what I wanted. 

While I was attending Sterling College I learned very little about agriculture but I became an expert on the Burlington music scene! I had always loved music and found it important to my life, I even booked my cousins band to play at our senior prom, but this was a whole new level of passion for me. My love for agriculture was slipping and my love for music was running wild.

I left college.

I started traveling with my boyfriend at the time all along the east coast. The late Winter, Spring and Summer of 1999 were spent seeing music, traveling, exploring where the wind took us. In the Fall of 2000 we found ourselves in his hometown in northeast PA needing jobs.

I was hired to work at a greenhouse. The only thing job I had done up to this point was grow, harvest, and sell vegetables. I worked for this greenhouse for one morning, in the rain and I was fired!!

As I went to take my lunch break the owner looked me straight in the eyes and in all seriousness he told me “you are not going to work out here, you don’t have planting hands” I was so mad, confused and scared. PLANTING HANDS? What does that even mean? I thought, “if I don’t have planting hands what kind of hands do I have?”

One afternoon  I saw a commercial on TV for massage school, and thought “maybe I could be a massage therapist?” I do like to work with my hands, I like alternative healing methods, and I love to help people…! 

Could I trade in my green thumb for healing hands?  

Sweet Melissa

I enrolled and started massage therapy school in the Winter of 2000. I really had no idea what I was doing when enrolling, but gave it a try. Well in this trying I ended up graduating with the highest grade in my class. In 2001 I graduated with a certification to practice massage therapy.

I had found my skill in this world, only I still was not convinced of it. At this point in my life I was still very passionate about local, live music.

I wanted to go to every show, I wanted to be involved with every show and I wanted to help the bands I really liked. That is what I did. I spent all my time going to shows.  Through this addiction for music I started promoting and traveling with local Philadelphia bands. I started building relationships with bands, talent buyers, and promoters, anybody I could network with. All of this networking finally landed me, at the time, my dream job.

I returned to Burlington Vermont and got the job as the Entertainment Coordinator for the historic music venue, Nectar’s. I stayed at this job for about three years and decided to move back to Philadelphia and work for the bands again. I began doing promotion and road managing for a couple of bands which brought me back on the road. 

It was only 2 years before I got tired of life on the road with rock and roll bands.

My body was unhealthy, my wallet was empty and my soul was in search of something deeper and more consistent.

In my quest for this deeper meaning in life, I started working at a health food store in Philadelphia.  I started working in the produce department, but quickly moved to the nutrition department. This job opened my eyes again to a lifestyle I had known as a child growing up but had not thought about as much as I should have into my adult years.

My focus shifted to the health of my body, mind and spirit.  As fate would have it, I went back to practicing massage therapy. I had been giving massages to my friends and to the bands on the road and was getting great feedback, it was time to take massage seriously. I started working for a clinic in Philly.

After about 2 years of working for this clinic I finally had the confidence to go out and work for myself. It was important to me to incorporate massage with all aspects of wellness, and specifically the role bees play in this aspect of life.  Massage therapy started taking priority in my life and it felt good.

However, the more I was getting into massage and my health the less I was involved with music. I started to really miss the shows, my friends, and even the business. I somehow wanted to get involved again, but I was too nice for rock and roll and I was enjoying how I felt and where I was in my head and heart, yet still something was missing.

In 2006 I started www.beewellmassage.com to bring awareness to my massage practice as well as the unbelievable honeybee.

At this time I also took my vision for a massage practice to the next level and became the owner of Bee Well Massage LLC. 

This was when I could fully commit to combining all that I love.

I work with local companies, bands, musicians and events in the area to provide chair massages and yoga classes. When I am not out at an event you can find me in my office.

Through my work I try to raise money for honeybees.

For example I have hosted four Bee Aware Party events in Vermont and in 2012 I introduced The Bee Well Book, a non profit book about honeybees.

My Life

After graduating in 2001 and working for others, 5 years later I was on my own and have not looked back! In 2005 I met my life partner Chris while living in Philadelphia through a mutual friend and (of course) a Pearl Jam show. We lived in Philly for a year together before moving to Vermont.

I ran Bee Well in Vermont for 7 years, it was a great place to explore and get a good of idea of my place in the wellness world. I also got some experience under my belt while living there. Even though we were happy in Vermont, we never quite settled there.

In 2013 my Loverman, Chris and I decided to move out of Vermont. The ocean was calling us and we answered. I moved my life and Bee Well Massage LLC to Portland Maine. We have been in Maine now for 10 years and this is home. We love it here. I am very content with my beautiful office in South Portland, we have the cutest apartment in Biddeford that we now share with our Great Dane, Sophia.

In my off-time you can find me with Chris and Sophia taking a hike or hanging out at the beach, we love a good road trip as well. Chris and I love to go see live music and make that a priority. Running has also become a huge part of my life and I am very passionate about it.

My life is pretty humble. I try to keep it simple, maybe its not always easy, but I wouldn’t change it for a thing!