Hello. My name is Joseph Jackson. I believe welding will be good for me to get started in a career. As I look towards the future, my dream ultimately is to have my own shop where I can do auto mechanics and I will be the fabricator and welder of the shop. It's already pretty easy doing auto mechanics by myself besides the electrical, but that can be learned on down the line. To be more specific, I think the hardest part of assembling a car, is the actual fabrication and welding of the chassis and body of the vehicle. Most of my family have been welders and mechanics and I want to follow in their footsteps. Maybe even possibly being greater than they were and even having my own shop, I could start teaching the youth and my cousins and maybe run the shop with my relative to do something great. Like you see in the YouTube videos or on the shows with all the car channels, and entering our cars into competitions, selling great cars, selling trucks, whatever it is have you. I've always had an interest in welding even from a young age when I first missed the shop class that taught welding because I came in midway through the school year. Back in 2022, I was able to be a part of a hands-on job-training program that lasted 10 week. There were two weeks that dedicated us to learn welding. Mig, tig and stick were on the agenda, but stick is all that we were able to get to during this 2 weeks. It was great, though. I thoroughly enjoyed it. From this experience, I renewed my interest in welding. I wanted to pursue the career back then at the local university but things did not turn out that way. Now, I am on this clear path to where things are working out, and I'm enrolled in school and I'm set to go. I just need the funding to accomplish this goal. There was also this time that I came to my uncle and I asked him to use his welder to weld my muffler onto my first car. He said to me, "you have to go to school for something like that." So I left with my tail between my legs. Come to find out my cousin told me my uncle was going to weld the muffler back on my car for me. After I had attached the welder crudely, I came to the conclusion that welding it would be the only proper way to secure it. There are currently a few cars that I need to do welding on right now and those are on my list to get fixed.

The immediate window of opportunity is through the trades. I am currently enrolled in welding program, and I believe this is my path as evidenced by the easiness of applying and all the right things lining up. I missed my first chance when I was younger in shop class as I had come to the school mid-year. Fast forward to when I was 17 and I had been made to rig up a muffler on my first car. I knew my uncle was a welder and mechanic, so I asked him to let me use his machine. He told me, " You need to go to school to be able to do something like that." And so I went, with my poorly attached muffler only to find out my cousin told me he was going to do it for me. I renewed my interest when I came across stick-welding during a 10-week hands-on job-training program that lasted for two weeks teaching us SMAW back in 2022. I kept running into professional welders with whom I worked alongside in the construction industry. I was intrigued by the work that they did and even more so when they would share their stories of how they came be welders. I also liked the outfits that they wore and especially their rigs. I am a big fan of work trucks. The current school that I am enrolled in is actually a school that an acquaintance and former coworker had graduated from! Exciting, to say the least.