I'm a blue-collar worker

YES, I'M A BLUE-COLLAR WORKER.

I hold spanar. I use strength when I work. I have dirty hands all the time. I see screws, bolts, nuts etc. I wear dirty pants and shirts. Cuts have never failed to show their existence on my hands. Bruises some times. My hair get stiffened whenever I am carelessly laid my head to the skin of the airplanes coated with a substantial amount of Corrosion Inhibiting Compound. It left an unwashable mark on my tee when I carelessly touched my body to the undried sealant that has just been applied. The stinks of grease stays with me when it fell on me during the application. i have to bear the itch when i worked with the fibreglass panels and that itch stays for few days. Fuel too will stink my hair whenever i climbed in to do some repair.

Never once before this that i think I will do this job. Years before, I looked down at the blue-collar profession. And what my mum said was: Study hard and you don't have to do all those "hard" kind of job when you grow up. Years later, I studied real hard and got crowned the best student award in my high school. Yet, I am doing that.

My perception towards blue-collars changed drastically after my enrolment in this programme. From feeling disgusted, now i pay my respects to them. Blue-collars job isn't just about strength but it's about the skills they possessed. Your car can't be running without defects if these people absent from the earth. Your broken television can't be repaired. Your house can't be built. They play important roles in the society. I'm truly impressed that they could do lots of things in short period of time. You'll never know until you're doing what they're doing. Their skills can't be rivaled. Me? I'm still long ways to go in order to master those skills before land myself as an engineer in the future.

The day i accepted the offer, I knew it's going to be tough. My studies has to be real good, my hands-on job too, has to excel. Papers below 75%(the passing marks) is not acceptable, neither do the pipeline that disconnects itself during airborne. From scratch I have to build up my career. Being so unfamiliar with all the toolings and equipments, learning has been difficult.

I enjoy having a pair of dirty hands. i enjoy sweating all over when working. i enjoy the satisfaction when i successfully carried out my job. i enjoy listening to the engineers telling us all their experiences in the past, their knowledge, conveying their methods of troubleshooting. I enjoy performing inspection to find out there is a defect in my area of inspection. I love seeing the aircraft flies safely after the details work of maintenace. I am pleased to see what I learned in the text i study is applied to my work. I am happy enough to know my time in classroom didn't get wasted. I am glad to have learnt the art of managing time( it's hard to find time when I need to work while preparing for exams).

I look forward:

• to becoming a trainee engineer who is more motivate in building up his career.
• to finishing my scope of work professionally.
• to getting my license to become an LAE(Licensed Aircraft Engineer)
• to signing off my first aeroplane(although scare might be incurred).
• to bearing my responsibility for the aircraft I maintain.
• to getting pay like all other LAEs.

LAE is called a professional. It's also a blue-collar job. So, I am and I will be a BLUE-COLLAR worker.

Not forgetting: I enjoy being a blue-collar worker.

Cheers for the blue-collar world!