Beginning to Weld

For my first blog it was quite hard to decide what to "blog" about and from my friends I was given outrageous ideas that I had to clarify had to be "school appropriate." Until one finally suggested to blog about something I love, without a second more, I thought of welding. But first I began thinking of how I always dreamed of being a doctor or surgeon or somewhere in the medical field before welding, so here's how it happened... 

It originally started with a program at my high school known as Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology (NAVIT), that consisted of Welding, Health Related Occupation (HRO), and a few others. HRO was that program I told my mom and others that I was doing, but on the day of testing I marked welding. Why? I still don't have a clear answer but I'm very glad I did though that weekend I told my mom and she wasn't so happy about it. After telling her I visited my older cousin brother, Jerrin, who is an ironworker and I told him what I did and he just laughed about me. Minutes later I asked what is welding?  He looked at me and responded let me show you. He handed me a Carhartt long sleeved button up shirt that already had burns up the sleeves, a welding cap to cover my hair, and putting on what I now know is called arm sleeves on my arms then a welding hood and gloves. As he was suiting me up, his older and younger brother, Everett and Jaylin, were setting up their Miller Bobcat Welder (a welding machine) on the side of me. At that point I was beginning to become more and more nervous and excited at the same time, I stood and watched as the three of them put their jackets, hoods, and gloves faster than I did of course. When they were done Jerrin told me to sit beside him and watch the little puddle. Everett pushed my hood down and we all gathered around Jerrin. "COVER!" was the last thing I heard, everything went silent when the bright light was the only thing I saw, at that moment I felt like a little kid again with a smile so big I couldn't take my eyes off that spark! Then Jerrin started talking about the puddle and keeping it the same size and how you have to push and pull the rod (stick used for welding) to keep the puddle steady and flowing evenly. After he completed a stringer (a welded line), he began telling me about how there are different ways of welding, different metal, different rods, different positions of welding, so many different things about welding and I didn't even understand any of it but it interested me even more!

The beginning of my junior year in high school was when I began taking welding classes with the NAVIT program. The first day of class I learned that I would be receiving college credit in welding by passing tests and doing different welding projects as a grade. I had NAVIT in the mornings then high school in the afternoon and I loved it a lot because I only had four classes at the high school. I remember my first welding assignment, two pads (welds overlapping one another to increase the thickness of the metal) with 6010 and 7018 (welding rods), I was so scared thinking that I would mess up or not be able to weld at all and with all these thoughts going through my mind I recall Jerrin telling me, "every welder sees the same puddle, no matter if you're a beginner or you've been welding all your life that puddle will remain the same." After feeling confident enough I did my first weld, then again, and again and again until I got it right.

I looked forward to welding everyday. Being able to welding is what I love doing, I do not regret changing my dream of becoming a doctor but looking forward to underwater welding as my ultimate dream now. So it's okay to change your dreams and chase new ones, or in a cliche "always expect, the unexpected."