Back to school

After I left university I didn’t think I would ever have to go back. I didn’t wanted to go back. But even I knew I needed to study to be a good mechanic one day. And so I started on my own. With wikipedia and other websites I slowly started to discover whole new universe of knowledge. Crankshaft and camshaft were the first parts I learned about. Part by part, a little bit every day after I got home from work. Soon I started collecting books. From the simplest one like Auto Repair for Dummies written by Deanna Sclar to Advanced Automotive Fault Diagnosis by Tom Denton (not exactly a cheap reading the second one). I have always loved reading but until then those books were fantasy or sci-fi. Once I started the first book about car I found out it‘s not that different. I read because I was interested in what I was reading and that time I just learned something more while doing that, nothing else really changed. Yeah, my brother told me that if I wasn’t such a geek already, something like this wouldn’t be possible.

So I studied every day just an hour or two and I really enjoyed it. If we had a job at work the next day, I prepared for it. But it wasn’t quite enough. Well, for me it was, but if I wanted to get my qualification in Auto repair and maintenance the only way to do that was to attend school. We were trying to find another way but there just wasn’t any. None of the providers were suitable. And even my signing up wasn’t without complications. You know, the whole not-being-English thing but also apprentices earn £3.50 and how the hell was I suppose to pay for school when I had to pay rent, food and other things. Well yeah, apprentices usually still live with they parents so they don’t have to worry about this but not always. What if they live on their own and don’t have daddy to pay for all the expenses.

Anyway I managed, I am still alive and I am a student. I was actually quite excited on my first day. I skipped level 1 and they put me directly in level 2. I was a little bit scared that I will be behind with my knowledge. I had been studying on my own only two months before my first day.

I can’t remember the last time I was so disappointed. The teacher asked what did it mean the four stroke engine and what were the strokes. I was quiet but so was everybody else. I wasn’t going to answer, it was my first day and I was really insecure and I was the newest in class whereas others already knew each other for four months. I thought he was joking but he was deadly serious. I still can’t believe nobody knew the answer. Then the teacher asked about the difference between the petrol and diesel engine and it was quiet again!!! This time I raised my hand, I was not going to be just a quiet new girl when I knew the answer. Come people, it is the first thing every mechanic needs to know, isn’t it? Then even the teacher was surprised that I knew that 14.7 is stochiometric fuel-air ratio and what did it mean. And so he asked me how I knew it. ‘I’ve been studying a little bit on my own,‘ was my answer. And right after I spoke everybody looked at me like I was some kind of an alien, not kidding.

That is why I was so disappointed, I just couldn’t believe that after only two months even the teacher was surprised by my knowledge. Especially when I had a feeling that I didn’t know anything. And the more I knew, I realised how little I knew. I couldn’t believe that was suppose to be level 2. What on earth were they teaching in level 1?

Few years ago I came across a quote by a writer Mark Twain - “I never let schooling interfere with my education“. I have always loved that quote but after my first day in Stockport College I realised that if I wanted to learn anything at all, I would just have to do it myself.

P.S. I fell in love with the school library. I am just worried that I won’t have enough time to read all of those books.