The first post will be FAQs. These are the typical questions that people ask me when they discover my trade and/or sex.
What made you get into electrical work (aka are you crazy)?
Well, I may be a bit crazy for doing this, but this isn't how I usually answer. Short reply, "I like working with my hands and don't want to be stuck in an office my entire life." My long reply tends to shift with my mood and the inquirer but basically involves bits and pieces of this little "me story".
My parents are very independent souls and love to take care of things themselves. If they can do it then why hire or ask someone else to? Figure it out and go for it. What's the worst that could happen? Fail and then try again with more experience or realize that someone else might be better for the job and you're no worse for the wear. This is actually key to my approach here, but I diverge.... With this attitude and living on one teacher salary my parents bought acreage to build a home of their own. When I say "build", I mean this in the literally sense and not "I hired someone to build my home from scratch". Remember the independent souls? I would also add practical, smart, capable, and ambitious to that, but again I diverge into adoring my parents and not explaining myself.
I was in high school when they took this project on and we lived in a "barn" that was built first while the house was constructed.They had joked that I would never live in the house before moving away to college. Ha! Joking often rings true in the end. This long process involved me whenever my parents could pin me down. I was always extremely busy with dance classes, rehearsals, performances, school, and avoiding chores. Usually in the summers I would take on projects assigned to me, but mostly I would say just living around the construction of my parent's house for four years made it a familiar environment.
While I was attending The Boston Conservatory for a BFA in dance performance, I would live at home in the summers as college students typically do. One of my favorite summer jobs was working as a general laborer for a contractor friend of my Dad's. (They're good mountain climbing partners/firends). I was able to work all over beautiful Whidbey Island, where Kamera and Gilles Carpentry built amazing custom homes. While I enjoyed working this job, I remember watching a Journeyman and his female apprentice working side by side. I was mostly excited by the image of the master teaching the student skills but I was also inspired by the female presence.
Those are a few of my reasons, but I think that will do for now.
What did you do before becoming an apprentice?
If by "do" you mean "work for a living", then I can say personal trainer and yarn shop retail associate. These are far from what I actually lived for and did most of my life though. Dance, dance, dance, and more dance. I never stopped dancing for more than a length of a summer since the age of three up to 26 when I took a one year hiatus. I'm still going strong and am dancing any chance I get (at least twice a week). With a Bachelors of Fine Art in dance performance there isn't much one can do but apply to dance companies and perform. Easier said than done and my parents passed on their "independent souls" to me but not the push-everyone-down-in-your-path-and-be-as-loud-as-you-can soul that most dancers need to earn a measly living in NYC. After three years of attempting that, I wore out and decided to chill on west coast and dance for fun instead.
Are you union?
Nope. Should I be? I honestly didn't make a conscious decision to be one way or the other. I just applied to a program and got in. They happen to not be the union. I learned a lot since applying and have been encouraged to join as an apprentice soon. Apparently they have better schooling, which is something I feel my current program lacks. We'll see what happens over the course of this blog. I may be union yet. In the mean time at least I have a job in these tough economic times.
Do you mind me asking how old you are? (usually a question posed by fellow trades workers)
28. I'm a little older than a lot of my fellow classmates. Yet, I feel that I'm physically youthful but mature enough that it's to my advantage.
Do you meet a lot of cute men at work?
No Scott, all of them are ugly mo fos!
Have you been electrocuted yet?
Nope. Crossing fingers that I never will be. My wiggy (voltage tester) is my best friend.
(good enuf for now. I'll keep updating this post with more FAQs)
Sorry if that's not as exciting to others but I'm a knitting and crocheting freak.
