What can welders and metal fabricators do with today?

Welder and children's book author Kelli Gilliam. Photo by Melissa Helmick, The Photographic Storyteller, Newport News, Va.

I’m starting to understand what my parents meant when they said that the older you get, the faster time goes.

Here it is 2020, a year that always seemed well off into the distance. And I know I find myself asking, “How did we get here so quickly?”

I turn 40 this year. The big 4-0. I’m at age where half the population thinks I’m a dinosaur while the other half still classifies me as a kid. I’m starting to feel more the former, especially when I find myself referring to today’s pop music as “noise,” preferring instead to listen to talk radio or true crime podcasts on my morning commute.

How did we get here so quickly?

Maybe you find yourself muttering that phrase when you realize we are smack dab in a presidential election year. We’re already being inundated with political ads, debates, and soon enough, caucuses. As the year progresses, so will the frenzied nature of the rhetoric on social media, and I’m not even referring to the candidates. I don’t know about you, but I’m still recovering from the craziness of the last election cycle.

I guess if we really wanted to, we could find all sorts of things to be all “Debbie Downer” about in 2020. But at what point do you just leave the worry, dread, and negativity at the door?

I’m sure there was a time Kelli Gilliam asked herself, “How did we get here?” We introduced you to Gilliam about a year and a half ago. She could have spent time dwelling on where she was and why – in a shelter with her two young sons after leaving a marriage.

Fortunately, dwelling on the negative isn’t her style. I was reminded of that after reconnecting with Gilliam for our article about becoming a successful pipe welder. Instead of dwelling on the how, she focused on where she wanted to be and how she was going to get there. She turned to welding, which opened the door to work and training at the prestigious Apprentice School at Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding, and eventually a position as craft instructor of welding on the yard.

Now Gilliam has turned her passion for welding into a children’s book titled Willow Discovers Welding. The book, set to release sometime this year, is inspired by her experience teaching her then 8-year-old daughter how to TIG weld. Her hope is that this is the first in a series of Willow Discovers books that highlight careers that are outside the norm of what is usually presented to children.

Instead of “How did we get here?” maybe the better question to ask is, “What can we do with today?”

A sincere Happy New Year to you all. It is our hope that the information you find in the the most recent content from The WELDER will help and inspire you to achieve your welding-related resolutions today and throughout the rest of the year.

Check out Melissa Helmick's photo essay on Kelli Gilliam.