Posted by Lanse on November 27, 2012 at 09:13:09 from (209.251.8.126):
Hey everyone!!
So, its nice and late in the morning, and I'm just now getting up. Thats exactly the way I like it, which is good because as of yesterday, I attend the Hobart School of Welding 5 days a week, from 4pm to midnight. Dont get me wrong, I *can* get up bright and early (I managed 14 years of regular school like that), I simply don't like to. It works out nice, because the evening classes at Hobart are smaller in size and theres less of a wait to get in.
Yesterday was my first day.
A lot of people don't know this, but I worked as a "Team Member" for the local Tractor Supply from April 17, until November 23. I wandered in there one afternoon on my way home from school probably for some kind of welding supplies, and the cashier looked at me and was like "Soooo.... Do you want a job?" I thought for a minute then left my name and number and stopped in the next day to talk to their manager. My first shift was like three days after that.
A lot of people complain about part time retail work, but truth be told, I loved every day of working at that place. My co-workers were really nice, and while I did have the occasional as$hat customer, most of them were really nice too. I almost always worked the evening shift because I was willing to, and the work was never really that hard. The hardest thing about it was either stocking feed (moving 500+ pounds of it in 50lb bags), or trying to maintain your sanity staring at a cash register at night when business was slow.
Few pictures exist of me working there, heres one I snapped with my cell phone as I was walking in for my last shift on Black Friday:
I've actually thought about sitting down in front of a camera and making a video talking about my time there, but anyway, I told my boss I was quitting sometime early in November (gave him like 3+ weeks notice), and he seemed happy for me and asked if I got another job. I told him I was going to Hobart, and he wished me the best. He was really cool, I bet if I'd stayed there for another year or two I coulda been a manager. I thought about it, and although the 7 or 8 months I was there were pretty sweet, Im not sure I'd want to make a career out of retail. If I wasn't doing welding, Id probably want to do marketing.
Anyway...
While you work at TSC, you and your immediate family gets a 15% off discount on anything. The very day I told my mom I got my job there, the first thing she said was "Cool, so you can get me all that fence for less, right?" That was in April. I told her what my last day was, and said I was NOT going there on black friday except for when I had to work. So, with 12 hours notice, we planned to do it the next morning.
I bought a nice little DeWalt angle grinder...
She bought two truckloads of fence, 50ish posts, a ton of wire, a few gates, a 3 month supply of dog food, dog food containers, chicken feeders, etc. All told we spent like $1200 there while we could, and I got to unload everything lol.
I was told later by another employee that in all the years she'd worked there (I feel bad for her, she went to 4 years of college and couldnt find a job, so now she works part time at TSC), no one had EVER made use of that discount more in a single day than we had, before they left. I also had the shortest stay at that store in YEARS of anyone who didnt get fired.
"Look what I found!!!"
Now, on to Hobart.
Yesterday, pretty much all day I was pumped.
I'd never been to Troy except to look at the school last summer, but my mom said it takes about 45 minites to drive there, but I should plan an hour. I ended up giving myself like an hour and 15 minites, and showed up way early. It was a nice little drive, but its still much closer than the nearest LWS, Steel yard, Best Buy, Shopping Mall, etc.
They said to be there by 3 for orientation, but my papers said it was 3:15. Another student later told me was told it was 3:30. I was like "greattt, we're off to an awesome start".
Showed up about 2:35, which is, ironically the time my old high school let class out. Here's a picture I took on my way in:
Anyway, I sat in my truck for a while then got bored and decided to wander inside. I saw a door for students, and walked through it. Inside was a brightly lit, battleship gray hallway, with a bunch of people walking around. I walked about 15 feet down it, then turned around and wandered into the office. The lady behind the desk directed me to a classroom down that hall and then a different one... I looked through the window in the door and it looked pretty empty... I wandered inside and it WAS empty. I was the first one there.
I pulled up a chair and sat down, got my iphone out and started browsing through Facebook. After a couple moments of this, the door opened and another lost looking kid appeared. "Is this orientation" he asked kinda sheepishly. "I hope so".
He sat down and introduced himself, he's a musician from Raleigh, North Carolina.
Shortly thereafter, this huge guy walked in, with a shaved head and covered in Tattoos. He's an Ex-Marine in his late 20's with a family to support here thanks to the GI bill. Shortly after him, a 30ish guy who said $12/hour at a warehouse "Just doesn't cut it".
Thats how a lot of the students were. Most were young, in their 20's or just out of high school like the musician and myself, and a few others. Probably 60% had never welded before. From what everyone said, I have the most prior education and the second most experience in the whole group.
We all went around and talked about ourselves, there was an Ex-MP who JUST got back from Germany like a few weeks ago. He's really nice, a bunch of us got dinner from the local Taco Bell and he told a bunch of stories from his time over there. The oldest was a 55 year old self called "gearhead" who just got laid off... And decided on another career rather than another job.
After the orientation (nothing special... No alcohol on school grounds... If you come in with a gun and shoot the place up, you'll be "dismissed" from the course, etc), we went to our first class, well, we only have one class a day so I guess its our only class, which is Blueprint reading. I sat next to a friendly bio-engineering student that went through 4 years of college, and couldn't find a job. So, he drove from San Diego, 37 hours to Ohio to start school here.
During orientation, our instructor said something like "We all believe you're responsable and mature, and..."
I kinda chuckled to myself, then I looked around and no one else was amused. I was like "Holy ****, we are" and that was an awesome moment. Its great to NOT be in High School anymore. The difference is, these people actually want to be here, and if they decide they no longer want to be here, the door is wide open. They have ZERO legal obligation to go to school, and the school's already been paid, they could care less if you show up or not.
Thats pretty cool. As I've said before, I absolutely HATED high school, and junior high even more than that. I HATED the schools I went to (with the exception of like 2, which were great. I moved a lot), and i HATED everything about the experience.
Hobart seems a lot different tho. The guys there are really friendly, the teachers we've met arent even in the same league as the "teachers" at the schools I've been to, and my old vocational school never even thought of having a setup half as nice as the Hobart campus and their tools.
I'm really looking forward to it. Day one was a buzzkill, just obligatory videos and lectures, etc. We watched some safety videos in Blueprint reading about O/A cutting, which scared the sh*t out of all the students who'd never used a torch before lol.
Blueprint reading is 80% classroom, and 20% hands on.
Which I'm not that thrilled with, but it is a skill I really need to learn, and plus, the rest of the classes Im taking are flip-flopped, 85% hands on, and 15% classroom.
That I like.
School dismissed about 11:30 and I got home a little after midnight. Even tho I dont really like living in Southern Ohio, one of the perks of living here is the traffic, or lack thereof. We simply have too much open road and too few people to cause traffic backups, so I really enjoyed my drive there and back.
Im looking forward to the next 9 months!! I'll post updates from time to time. I guess I just want to thank everyone who pushed me to go to some type of school. So, thanks.
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