Dalton Pattie is ready to go to work right after graduation from BCSS. In fact, he plans to be on a plane heading north within a week of the end of school. “I am pretty hard working and smart as far as that goes,” he says with confidence.
Dalton had enough credits that he only needed to attend one semester in Grade 12.
So he took the first semester off and moved to Kelowna to get a taste of life away from home.
“I came back to finish school because I really want to become a welder and I needed Grade 11 math to do that,” he explained.
“I really want to get my own welding truck together because that’s money for me when I am working and money for my truck when it’s working.
“I am definitely going up north to get a job. That’s $26 an hour to start. That’s good money.”
He plans to work up there for a year or so. “Make enough money to leave and to know that I have a secure place all of the time I am in school. It just makes sense.”
He sees some value in starting at the bottom as a helper too. “I would like to get out there and do a little binge as a hand because that just gets you formally introduced with the work. What’s going on and what’s happening.”
In five or 10 years Dalton sees himself working up north with his own welding rig. With that semester off he’s seen some of the real world that many of his classmates have yet to experience. Dalton displays a confidence that makes one believe he’ll be doing fi`ne out there in the world.