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.