A blast of bright light shines through the commons as the welding room gets to work on their projects for the day. Within this room stands Kros O’Brien, creating and learning his next best project.
O’Brien is a Lakeland Senior who works as an apprentice mechanic and is paving his way to a bright future one flame at a time.
O’Brien learns decent mechanical things through his apprenticeship and feels like it is a lot better to get hands-on experience and have fun while learning it.
While O’Brien has a career goal set and plenty of ideas of what to do, deciding from them can be a little conflicting.
“I’ve got a couple of pathways opened up for me. It is interesting trying to figure out what to do with the scholarships I have or thinking about whether I am even going to school,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien is already pretty far ahead in his journey and does not want to feel “pushed back.”
“I can either go back to work as a millwright or mechanic and learn from the guys in the yard or go and get the actual schooling, which I already know quite a lot, so I feel it might be setting me back,” O’Brien said.
While there may be a lot of options, and it can feel a little overwhelming at times, no matter what O’Brien decides to do, he has a good support system behind him.
“Kros is a very kind person who is very cooperative and easy to communicate with. I think that he will accomplish big things after high school, whether it is college or going straight to work through a trade. His work ethic will help him achieve big things,” London Peterson said.
O’Brien’s future looks bright in the aspect of just work but also in his personal life as well.
There are not many things that O’Brien will miss from his high school years, as he is ready to get out of here, but one of the things that comes to mind is the freedom and fewer responsibilities.
He is excited to start his journey and see where life after high school will take him.
“I feel very lucky to have him in my life and one day be married to him; he has a big heart and amazing personality,” Peterson said.
Seeing O’Brien’s dedication throughout high school, his classmates have no doubts that he will go far in life.
“I will miss my industrial mechanics class. I have done it for the last four years and like getting a bunch of different experiences. Like doing competitions you get to experience some other things from employers and people of such. I got first place at the welding regionals this year. I won a lot for that, and it was a lot of fun,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien has had this focus for his career goal since the first time he walked into the industrial mechanics class freshman year, and now, while he may be trying to decide which way to go in the field, he has stuck with it and created an open future for himself. There is no lie about that.
