Safety glasses on and a dark room goes bright

Smell of a workshop and burning material rushes to my nose

The screeching sound of a metal chair sliding across the floor echos

Gas on, vents on

Earbuds playing Sunglasses at Night

The stress of passing and getting the certification crushes me

People walking from booth to booth

People in bright yellow and blue welding jackets joking and yelling

Hair up, jacket on, helmet on

The loud noises and bright lights in the booths are like everyday

But seem more important today

Two squares and two rectangles of metal

Grinded clean sitting uneven on the metal table thats been grinded on to many times

Tacked up perfectly, flush and even

Gloves on, helmet down

Sparks fly, metal goes red

Slow but not to slow

The wire filling the gap between two plates

Going in evenly and in a straight line, despite my shaky hands

Plate gets bright red

Then a huge hole forms

A big hole in two plates

The two plates that were tacked up pefectly

I was going slow but not to slow

The huge hole haunts me

Perfectly straight and 100% all the way through 

Destroyed by a burnt hole

No hope to pass, history will just repeat itself

It's time for the real thing, 4 tries

Tacked up too big of a gap

But the welder is set up perfect

I thought why not just have another practice pass

I start the weld, the hot metal puddle moving across the plate

I bring it to be tested

I passed

I got the certification