My first welds.

The third day of class had me practically bouncing in my chair in excitement. I was telling my study buddies in other classes about how I was going to get to weld that night. If you had tried to bottle my excitement, the cap wouldn't have been able to fit ontop.

After another safety video and a video on Oxyacetylene welding, (during which I was constantly thinking Oh no, I am gonna blow myself up.) we got to go out and work on our first welds. Half of the class already had some experience arc welding with a stick electrode. Those of us who had no experience were partnered up with people who had some experience.

I was partnered up Malibu, one of the guys from the previous week who had been talking to me about where to buy the textbooks. After he introduced himself, we grabbed our tools, threw on our safety glasses and headed into the shop. He told me that it had been quite a number of years since he had welded, and hoped he remembered what he was doing. One of the advanced students showed us how to turn on the equipment and adjust the voltage, and where the electrodes were kept, then we got to work.

I watched over his shoulder as he welded, then we switched out so I could have a chance. I stuck the electrode against the metal, and pulled up too far, and the flame went out. So I tried again, and didn't pull up enough and stuck the electrode to the metal. This continued a lot throughout the evening. I did get a couple of beads completed, but they looked terrible, and I got mad at myself everytime I screwed up. Malibu was very supportive and kept telling me to try again and not get frustrated. He made a few errors too, but was overall much better than me.

I had to kick the perfectionist in me to the side and remind myself that he had done this before and I had not.

Teach came by to ask us what we thought and how we were doing and all I could say was, "Well it looked a lot easier in the video." He gave us some tips and while Malibu as working he asked if I wanted to work in the industry, or if I was just here for personal reasons.

As I was not currently working, I told him that I was open to working as a welder if I found that I liked it, and did well with it. So he told me that women welders get union jobs very easily, if they turn out quality work. I was surprised, but he said it's because they need the minority, as an equal opportunity employer. This immediately sparked (haha, get it?) in me a desire to get to work.

We showed him our welds, he gave us some tips to try out and headed on to the next group of students.

We cleaned up, put our tools away and headed out a bit later. Not only was I leaving ecstatic about having gotten to weld, but I was also happy that I made a friend in Malibu, and hence, was starting to feel less like an outcast.