The best back-to-school tip I have is to get out of your comfort zone! Life is too short to not take a second to say good morning to someone, have a smile on your face, or go up and strike up a conversation with that special someone you've had a crush on for a while. Highschool is some of the best years of your life. Make them count!

The welding field has been one of my strongest passions since I was a kid. For my 10th birthday, my father got me a 125 amp flux core welder from harbor freight and I've been fascinated by it ever since. I began building things. I started with small things like fixing a wagon. Then I started learning how to fabricate. I took an old wheel horse lawnmower we had sitting outside. And decided to make it into essentially a go-kart. So I took an old golf-cart front suspension and just started welding stuff. Lo and behold I had a drifting lawnmower that did about 50mph. Now I have a Datsun 280zx sitting outside on a homemade rotisserie that I am designing a tube chassis for. It's interesting what a small passion can get a person involved in. It's not often, a man can find something he's passionate about. Something you get so fixated on that you want to tell everyone else about it. What guided me towards the field of welding was how interesting it was. Essentially how electricity and gas properties can cause the metal to mend together. When I graduated high school, I thought I had it all figured out. I wanted to be a mechanical engineer, make 75k a year, live in a big house, building and designing bridges, and such. Just by taking a couple of classes at college, I soon switched my major and started taking welding, which is where I felt most at home. I learned there are tons of jobs and opportunities out there that even pay more than mechanical engineers! So here I am today, in my second year at Rowan-Cabarrus community college, with about another one or two semesters to go to finish out my degree, and I'll be off to the pipeline or oil rig to live out the American dream. In May of 2020, my grandmother passed away due to lung cancer. Her death was a very hard experience for me and my family as she played a big role in our lives. I had lived with her for 6 years, taking care of her as she was no longer suitable to live on her own. The day after her funeral, I found out my girlfriend at the time was cheating on me and decided to break things off while I was mourning the loss of my grandmother. It was a lot for me to take in. I Lost what I thought was a real relationship and also my grandmother whom I loved dearly. But from that day forward, I mentally made a decision that I was not gonna let myself be overcome by all that had happened. That I was not going to be depressed and lay in bed all day wondering why all of this had occurred. This situation awoke me from a deep and somber slumber. I realized that I had plenty of others around me that cared about me and that the only thing that was keeping me from reaching my full potential was her. I found a job that I love, welding on cars, and I am working towards graduating next year at trade school. The moral of the story is life is going to throw you curveballs. No matter how fast or slow. But it is you that has to determine if you are going to swing at the ball or if you are going to be overwhelmed by its approach and run away from the plate.

The welding field has been one of my strongest passions since I was a kid. For my 10th birthday my dad got me a 125 amp flux core welder from harbor freight and I've been fascinated by it ever since. I began building things. I started out with small things like fixing a wagon. Then I started learning how to fabricate. I took an old wheel horse lawnmower we had sitting outside. And decided to make it into essentially a go kart. So I took an old golf-cart front suspension and just started welding stuff. Low and behold I had a drifting lawnmower that did about 50mph. Now I have a datsun 280zx sitting outside on a homemade rotisserie that I am designing a tube chassis for. It's interesting what a small passion can get a person involved in. It's not often, a man can find something he's passionate about. Something you get so fixated on you want to tell everyone else about it. What guided me towards the field of welding was how interesting it was. Essentially how electricity and gas properties can cause metal to mend together. When I graduated high school, I thought I had it all figured out. I wanted to be a mechanical engineer, make 75k a year, live in a big house and do a desk job signing paperwork and designing things. Just by taking a couple classes at college, I soon switched my major and started taking welding, which is where I felt most at home. I learned there are tons of jobs and opportunities out there that even pay more than mechanical engineers! So here I am today, in my second year at Rowan-Cabarrus community college, with about another one or two semesters to go to finish out my degree, and I'll be off to the pipeline or oil rig to live out the American dream. The Welding field plays such an important role in our society. Without welders, we wouldn't have buildings to work in, cars to drive places, stoves to cook on, or pipelines to move our oil from one end of the country to the other. Without welding, there is no America. What built the statue of liberty?? The framing on the inside is all metal so someone had to go inside of it and weld that framing together. Just like welding holds up the statue of liberty today, welding is what holds our country together. Welding is the backbone of our country and its quite disappointing that a large portion of the population fails to see that. Hard work isn't appreciated anymore and I hope one day that might change.