What does you do and how did you start?

 I do welding for Pepper Construction with my dad, I started about a year ago, and I got the job through my dad. One day he said that they needed a welder and my dad talked to his company and they said I could work. I work on Saturdays, and each job I work like in total is about $200, hourly I probably make about $10, which isn’t the best but it’s something I like to do so I don’t complain about it.

Why do you do it?

 I just find it interesting, I like that I get to just zone out and feel like I dont have to think about anything. Welding is just a time that I get to feel content and it makes me feel like the world around me has stopped. I like that I can be apart of something that everyone uses and sees, like its kinda cool to be like oh yeah I helped build that building that everyone knows and sees

Have you ever had to do anything scary?

So, yeah sometimes I have to do things that are kinda scary like this one time I had to weld a side part of the building and they had me down in a harness, and I was like 50ft in the air. I had to sit there welding the side of it like it was nothing. That was probably the one time I was actually scared because you never know if the harness will break or if you burn yourself and I have burned myself a lot, and it hurts a lot.

When was there a time that you were nervous?

I would say the times I was the most nervous was when I first started, because it was just me there welding because we didn’t have our new recruit yet. That’s kinda scary being the only welder there with like 50 other guys. I ended up messing up like 5 times and I got in trouble for it, and it got taken out of my paycheck.

Is there ever a time that you thought to yourself that you didn’t want to do this?

I would say yes, like in the moment when I burn myself I think about what am I doing but then I think it’s all kinda worth it because I get to do something I love and make things that I’m proud of, like this one time I made a bouquet of roses out of scrap metal, I just got bored and I wanted to weld something so I made roses.