Chapter 6: Two Lives a Welder and a Foreman. (Catie Shomaker

This chapter was split into two different stories of two different people that had totally different lives but the same goals and determination.
The first person that Mike Rose introduces to the reader is Lisa Legohn. Lisa is a teacher at the Los Angeles Trade Technical Community College, but there was a lot that Lisa needed to overcome before she reached that place.
Lisa started training to be a welder in high school then entered into the trade when she was 19. She said that it started out as a joke to get to her parents, but then it turned out she loved everything about welding. She states that she considers welding an art. It was not an easy road for Lisa, she constantly had to deal with racial and sexist slurs, but Lisa was determined to succeed in the workplace that was meant for men.
Mike Rose then introduces us to a man named Joesph Meraglio who is actually Mike’s own uncle. Joe had to quit school after 8th grade so that he could help support his family like all immigrant children had to do. Joe did not face the harassment that Lisa had to endure but he did have to find a good, stable job with barely any educational background.
Throughout the chapter, Rose goes back and forth between Lisa and Joe sharing their stories. Their stories show that they both have strong determination and motivation. Even though Lisa was constantly harassed, she was doing what she loved to do and that is what kept her going. Nothing could stop her. Joe’s work was tedious and not so pleasant, it was not his passion working with trains, but he had another motivator: supporting his family.
Both Joe and Lisa showed the right attitude and work ethics, they were able to feel a high sense of security from their achievements- something that people who were born into money could not really appreciate since they were born right into security.
Both Lisa and Joe started at the bottom and both ended up on top. Lisa went from a lost student to a teacher as Joe went from a lowly laborer to the superintendent of General Motors.
I think that both of these stories are truly inspirational. Both had to work hard in order to achieve what they wanted. They show that you can do anything you want if you set your mind to it and seize the opportunities that come your way. Everybody has a different reason as to why they do the work they do. Lisa was lucky because she found something that she loved to do at an early age. Joe’s reason was to support himself, but mainly his family. I think that Joe did end up loving his work later on because he achieved it all by himself.
There stories are different but their passion helped them reach the same goal: success.