Sick.

The next week I was terribly sick. I was dragging myself to my classes and stiffling coughing fits.

I showed up early to the welding shop, leaving all of my gear in the trunk of my car. Teach looked at me and said "You're sick." I nodded and he told me to go home. He said that breathing in the dirt and fumes wasn't going to help me get better, and that since I was ahead of everyone, missing a class wouldn't be detrimental.

I went home, crawled into bed and dreamt of burning metal.

My welding class was only one day a week. But later in the week, the advanced students had a class that ran at the same time. We were told that we were welcome to come in on that day and catch up. I was feeling guilty about missing class that week, so I went in to do a few assignments and get ahead again. I was still pretty sick, but feeling much, much better than I had felt when Teach told me to go home.

I saw a lot of faces that I had never seen before. A lot of people looked at me questioningly.

One guy greeted me with a happy hello, and as I was pulling my hat out of my tool bag he asked if I had a do-rag. I pulled out a bandana quickly and said "I sure do!" I pinned my bangs back, a la Rosie, and tied the bandana around my hair, then slipped on my ballcap backwards. Two minutes from girly-girl to tomboy.

Teach grabbed a ratty piece of scrap and told me to weld it to my pad for a handle. This was my first time welding two pieces of metal together. I had a hard time keeping the spark going, but I made it about three quarters of the way across my new handle then took it to him. "You aren't grading me on this are you?" I asked. It looked terrible and I held it behind my back until he told me no.

He then showed me how to use the chop saw, which was brand new, and I cut the ends off of my pad, to look for deposits inside. I had a blast using the saw. Teach leans in and goes "Are the sparks bothering you?" I shook my head. Hell, it looked like christmas, with all those yellow sparks flying around. I loved it!

He noted that there were very few deposits in my pad, and told me to take it out to the wirewheel, clean it up and soften the edges. I loved grinding that thing down. I was starting to think that I didn't want to be a welder after all, I wanted to be a cutter and a grinder.

There is only one wirewheel in the shop, and occasionally I would look back and see someone waiting for me to finish. So I would step aside and let them have a turn. Some looked angry or annoyed at me. I stood back, waited for them to finish then went back at it. I had a lot to do, this was my first time using a wirewheel so I wasn't by any means adept, and the pad was damn rough and really dirty! But eventually I got sick of the evil eyes and decided to go home.

One of the evil eyes was from Camaro, the guy who had given me my tour of the shop last semester when I came in to talk with Teach. He had been so nice then and now he looked so annoyed that I was there. I didn't get it.

I packed up my tools, said goodnight to Teach and headed home.

Success!

Got back to class and immediately went to work on my pad. Did a few practice beads on some scrap, then jumped right in to the second layer, at 85 amps. When finished, I took it in to be graded and Teach said it was exceptional! Went back out to finish my third layer, turned up the amperage to 90 and did my practice beads on the scrap. I immediately noticed how much hotter it was, and it even felt harder to control, but I went ahead with the pad, and when I was done,I took it in to Teach. He said it was even better than the last and graded me a 96% for the last layer. Some of the guys were standing around, they seemed surprised and took a look over my shoulder.

One of the other guys needed a spot to work, so Teach told me to go take a break. I stood around for a bit. Some of my classmates brought over their work to be graded, and I watched Teach send back quite a few of them to do it over. One of which was my buddy Malibu. He looked at me, frowned and went over to his booth.

I went outside to make a phone call and when I came in, I saw that everyone was working. I was the only one who was done.

There was certainly a new spring in my step that evening. I checked in on Malibu a few times to see what problems he was having. I also watched Nomad, one of the other beginning students that I had spoken with briefly on other days.

We all seemed to frequently come across the same problems. Splatter, sticking the electrode or losing the flame. I tried not to be too cocky about being done, knowing that I would encounter plenty of problems as time went on. Isn't the first assignment always the easiest anyway?

Malibu picked at me as we walked out to our cars. Calling me "Miss 96 percent". I knew he was being friendly, but I picked back at him, with my head held much higher than it had been the week before.

Week four. The first assignment.

Teach told us to go out and practice for a half hour and then come back to the lecture room and we would talk. I grabbed my equipment and went out to find that all of the work stations were taken. A few of the guys saw me looking for a place to work, and quickly turned back to their work, avoiding eye contact with me. I looked about for Malibu, but couldn't find him, so I went and sat outside until the lecture.

I seethed. I couldn't understand why almost all of the guys were giving me the cold shoulder. I grew up around men, and always got along with males better than females. I had proven that I didn't mind getting dirty, burning holes in my clothes, carrying heavy loads... I wasn't asking for any special treatment, just the same courtesy that they were affording each other.

When I went back in for the lecture, Malibu was there "Hey! Are you just getting here?" I frowned, shook my head but didn't elaborate, not wanting to whine.

For lecture, he talked to us about common problems, gave us tips, and then we got to talk about any problems that we were having. Then we got our first assignment!

Our first assignment? What?! I wasn't ready for that! Our assignment was to weld a pad on quarter inch steel. We had to do 3 layers with 7018 electrode. Each layer was to have a different type of motion.

Malibu and I grabbed our tools and went to the shop, snagging a work booth quickly.

"You know, you are the only one here who will talk to me," I said to him.

"Aww are they scared of you?" he asked with a smile.

"I don't know, I guess so. But as a result, you are my perma-buddy now. You are going to get so sick of me."

He laughed.

We grabbed some electrodes and got to work. Not too much later, while Malibu was welding, the guy at the booth next to us, lifted his helmet, looked at me and asked how I was liking it. I told him it was fun, but I kept sticking the electrode. He told me to strike it like a match, and not pull up. He looked just a few years younger than me, which was surprising, because so far, everyone that had spoken to me was noticably older. He took off his glove, shook my hand and introduced himself. We will call him Lightning. He said if I had any questions to let him know.

I had a bit of a spring in my step after that, happy that not EVERYONE was shying away from me.

I did a few practice beads on scrap metal before getting to work on the first layer of my pad. Not too much later, Lightning left the booth and Malibu took his place. Soon, after each pass, we were leaning around the canvas divider and comparing our work.

Lightning came by at one point and watched over my shoulder, telling me tips as I went.

When I finished my first layer, I sat back, looked at it and thought it looked pretty good, so I took it to teach for a grade. He looked at it, looked up at me, and smiled. Then wrote on my grade sheet that I got an A.