Possibly the happiest day of a teenager's life.



Heading to the school house for the last day under the liberal, mamby pamby thumbs of teachers. (Most of his are cool, but some....)

Good job Nathan! So proud of you.

NICE!

Now the real grind begins.

Congrats! That's a young man to be proud of!

'Forever' isn't always forever. I've known a LOT of people, myself included, who've realized later that more schooling was needed for advancement in life.

He's going to a welding school this summer. But it truly is different than a high school.

Sometimes I wish I'd become a skilled tradesman.

Life's golden moments for me:

First day of school vacation every summer.

Last day of High School.

ETS from Army.

Retirement.


Congratulations Nathan!

Good job. My last will be right behind him in a week or so.

Congrats!

If he likes it and excels, he'll be making more money than the majority of college graduates from the get-go. Trades are in high demand and the demand will grow as more and more youngsters come along. Nobody wants to do anything anymore, but they'll pay to have it done!

Congrats to your son!

I'm ahead of you because I'm so frickin old Dave

The baby graduated a week or so ago

And bless him didn't want to partake in the grad ceremonies

Dodged a bullet he wavered at the end about walking with his class as one of his teachers explained you participate in the ceremony for your parents, not for you

Cripe his mom already planned to be in Vegas to celebrate our nieces 21st bday!

Thought for a minute I was gonna have to attend another graduation

But we explained to him the doc was enough for us, so I dodged that bullet

Tell Nathan congrats! Now life begins

OUTstanding!

Kudos and congratulations to you both !

Greg

Good for him and good choice in selecting a trade school over a safe space "Institute Of Higher Education".....I have a friend that teaches welding at the state college over in Lewiston...I assure you I'd much rather have him influence my child's career and work ethic than the "liberal arts" frauds in what has become of traditional academia these days....

Good luck Nathan...

That is the best feeling ever, for both of you.


mike r

Dave, When Nate gets home and situated, open 2 beers and hand him one. He has earned it!!!!

Smart kid. Didn't fall for the "everybody needs college" trap. Good choice of trades too.

Is Nate still planning on Diesel Mechanics in the fall Dave?

Congrats!

Nope, going for welding.

Congrats Nate and Dave. Welders will always have lots of work.

Dave,

He might also want to pick up the diesel school later.

Crossfire apparently does both, and he never seems to run out of something to do.

The two skills go hand-in-hand.

Myron

I believe Crossfire is a machinist as well.

mathman,

Yep - I forgot about that part. Pretty darn good at it as well.

Myron

mathman,

"Sometimes I wish I'd become a skilled tradesman."

As long as I'm yakkin here, I would not advise most young folks to go to college. i have worked alongside many graduates with degrees over the years that were working in the building trades or other jobs, because there were no 'degree' jobs, or the money was better.

When I graduated from High School, my parents INSISTED that I go to college, and there was no talking them out of it.
That was one of the worst mistakes of my life, as I really wanted to do a hitch in the military first and sort out my priorities. I ended up being a dropout before dropouts were fashionable.

It turned out that I was right in the first place, and I ended up doing it all bass-ackward.
I might have even made a career of the Navy, if it hadn't been for the USS Liberty and the USS Pueblo fiascos. I ended up telling the Navy to stick a $10,000 re-enlistment bonus where the light didn't shine, and left the Service. That was a LOT of money in 1968!

I never did get back into regular 'college', but took several continuing ed courses in the tech schools over the years.

I hope this rant helps someone else, instead of caving into the "college or die" nonsense.

Myron

There is SO much money out there to be made by people with a trade and good work ethic.

Funny how that's always been the case. I'm sure the lad will do well, the only wildcard in life for men is PUSSY

What somebody should have told me! :

Do a trade, whatever is protected by law so unskilled labour cant out compete you.

Work a few years, pay of mortage quickly.

Save for college, get a Engineering degree before you are to old, or when body can`t handle the job anymore.

Live frugaly.

Save as much as you can in a low cost index funds! Start EARLY!!!

Buy only one of these, and of high quality; 22lr, 223, 30-06 and a 12 gauge. Use money saved on hunting!

I'm proud of you Nate! For 10 years I've watched you grow into a fine young man. You're to a great start!

This is so true. Good tech schools go wanting for students. No one seems to want to get their hands dirty any more. A very alarming trend.

I've never heard of an out of work welder. Just sayin.

Thumbs up!

Very good advice above. My working career was in the HVAC, Plumbing and Piping industry and we hired many welders over the years. After 30 or more years of welding the eyes get to the point that the welding suffers. All of the building trades will give you a good living, especially the "Licensed Protected Trades" such as Electrician, Plumbers, Welders, HVAC Techs, etc., but they are hard on the body and at 55 or 60 years old they become difficult to stay proficient in. Now our young people today will most likely have to work until they are 70 years old, so a transition to an "office job" is a great plan.

Most of our Project Managers that worked in the office were field tradesmen who had additional schooling later in their careers and transitioned to the office/professional staff.

Outstanding!

Nice truck, too.

Ol' Nates graduating and poor Preacher man will have to ride the bus next year as he starts Junior High. Watched Lil' Joey in his last Elementary program last week, still has the grin that always keeps going. I think he was watching for swamp squids in the theater too! Nate will do just fine in life. We'll be seeing him soon.

Second best four years of my life was high school. It got me out of lot of hard work on the farm. Best four years was college.
After that its the grind of work.

Thats great news. Welding is a hell of a trade too. Lotsa jobs and good opportunity to work for one's self after a while.

fixed it for you

congrats Nathan and keep learning quality work ethic from your dad and you will have a skill that never goes away.

norm

Yup, my college degree never closed any doors. No degree won't open a lot of doors. Good luck to the young man.

Congrats to you and your family, Dave. My son graduated this past Sunday, as well. It was a surreal day for me, but I am proud of him, just trying to figure out what went with all the years.

Mine is fixing to go back to school in July, though. It will be interesting to see what he looks like when graduation time comes from that school.