JUlie Trump
Virginia
Age 57

Since my son was now entering his teenage years, I knew I needed a so-called job. But the thought of reentering the 9-to-5 business world made me queasy, quite literally. I’d spent a career as an advertising copywriter, but by now was doing only sporadic freelance work here and there. Because I just could not put my heart into marketing for plastic packaging material or selling elk-antler dog treats anymore. I couldn’t even force myself. Though because I was getting some pressure on the husband front to contribute toward household expenses, I had dove into learning about blogging and social media, taking online courses and even starting my own WordPress blog site. For no matter what, my passion will always be writing.

Besides writing, though, what revved my engine was spirituality. I’d been a searcher from a young age. Simply trying to find meaning and joy! After countless detours and explorations, workshops and retreats, this search led me to a course of study to be ordained as a public minister in 2007-2008. A small group of us met in someone’s home for nine months where we were instructed by the head of our order — much in the way Jesus taught. At the end of those nine intensive months, I was ordained in a solemn ceremony, gave my first sermon, and was handed an ornate certificate with my “Reverend” I.D. card. And that was it. Our order had no dogma or rites. We were now simply Ambassadors of Peace, however we wanted to live out that dictum. I had no idea.

Then in spring 2013, five years later, I was in the local Barnes & Noble browsing through Spirituality & Health magazine…purely on a whim. And there it was, finally. How I could make use of my Public Minister credentials and desire to spread peace. It was a 1/4-page space ad for the Celebrant Foundation & Institute, inviting me to become a Certified Life-Cycle Celebrant. My heart gave a jolt. “This has to be too good to be true,” I thought to my jaded marketing self, “What’s the catch?” Nevertheless, I rushed home to comb their website, www.celebrantinstitute.org, and registered for the next Open House Webinar. That’s when I learned that it wasn’t too good to be true. It was perfect.

All the byways and highways I’d explored in my life: The writing and editing skills; the continuing education poetry classes; the marketing and social media skills; the interviewing skills I’d honed writing technical articles; the organizational skills I’d developed as an administrative assistant in an earlier career; my love for people and their stories (memoirs being my favorite literary genre); and not least of which, my ordination as a minister…. All these dovetailed into the “job” of Life-Cycle Celebrant.

But it’s not a job. It’s a vocation, a calling. And just as in the movie, When Harry met Sally, “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible….” I wanted my Civil Celebrant career to start as soon as possible. So I immediately applied to CF&I and was accepted for the 2013 fall-winter Fundamentals of Celebrancy session. At the end of that, I chose to specialize in Wedding Celebrancy for the 2014 winter-spring session.

You know you’re on the right track when everything falls into place. Only two weeks after becoming certified through CF&I, in April 2014, I had a signed contract from my first bridal couple. In the six months after graduation, I performed eight marriage ceremonies (actually, four in one month). What a privilege and honor to be front and center (well, more like standing to the side) — basking in the love of this radiant couple and their families — on one of the happiest days of their lives. Not only that, there is happiness in everything that goes into it from interviewing the couple over coffee to shape their ceremony vision — to writing a beautiful, personalized ceremony script just for them — to being the steady influence that allows them to remain calm and ready to embark on the unfamiliar road of marriage.

I also have to say, it’s been good for my own marriage. I am so happy and productive that it makes my husband happy and supportive. He’s even helped out as my roadie, transporting and setting up my PA equipment for some weddings. And he’s also become my business manager, helping me keep the accounts. Honestly, being a Life-Cycle Celebrant doesn’t feel like a job at all. (But I wouldn’t tell my husband that. He thinks I’m “working.”)

Being a Celebrant has taken me into a new world where I’m involved with many aspects of small business and interacting with all sorts of people from many different sectors — and I still get to write. I’m interacting not only with the couples and their families, which is so fun, but with other wedding-industry professionals, vendors, and techies. I’ve even learned how to do some computer coding for my own Celebrant website…at my age. I am constantly amazed at where that one 1/4-page space ad in Spirituality & Health has taken me. Straight to finding the meaning and joy for which I’d been searching.