Soooo I'm still kind of new to the game and was curious as to why my Shai did not start with Professional 1 in gathering nor alchemy? Does anyone happen to know the answer to why is that if the description states she would?

This passive was removed when the lifeskill level rework was added, making it not count towards the total. Far as I know its not in the Shais skill tree any more either

Thank you for your input. I truly didnt know they did a rework.

One of the things PA does without putting thought into the ramifications of what they do.  To make Shai worthwhile. they should have buffed Joy of Gathering and Alchemy to give more Gathering and Alchemy exp as well as Combat exp.

But, PA never thinks ahead.  They act on impulse and poorly plan.  Hence so much content dying on arrival, and reworks going sour.

Hopefully they'll start rolling everything back to the good old days when things actually worked.

Yup, her lifeskill bonus, passives (useless) and music playing, dancing (and at some point surfing via snowboarding) were given to all classes.

PA has issue with updating anything shais themselves get and the community only sees their impact in PvP buffing so just complain.

Shai should never have had any lifeskilling pasisve or the dancing/playing instrument/snowbording/Llama riding etc etc only exclusive to her. And neither of those things should matter in regard to class balance because they don't have anything to do with it. Shai is a full support class with  corresponding strengths and weaknesses and that should be it.