Each year in high school, I took woodshop courses. They were a great marriage of my skills and interests: I enjoyed math, I was seeking creative outlets, I loved working with my hands, and power tools excited me. My journey started positively, thanks to my wonderful teacher, Mr. Petti. He had to leave the construction industry due to an injury, and had chosen to dedicate the rest of his career empowering students to pursue the skilled trades, through teaching. He encouraged me to follow my curiosity and challenged me to take a holistic approach to learning.

I was put into the architecture design class, which allowed me to design and build my own projects. One stand-out project was a bucket seat bench (which still sits in the home I grew up in) as it was the first project I had ever done from start to finish. One day, I returned to class to discover that Mr. Petti had graciously welded custom cast iron bars to support weight on the bench. He explained that he didn't want to interrupt my design process earlier and taught me the calculations I would need to account for the weight in the bench. I remember feeling so grateful for having a mentor like him (especially as I was one of the only young women in my class).

I loved woodwork so much that I spent a semester interning at a custom homes company. There, I was told that women were not present on construction sites and was asked to do administrative work in the office. Thanks to the confidence that I had gained in Mr. Petti's class, I successfully advocated to shadow the workers on-site which led me to operating tools and contributing to projects directly.

I remember believing that my disappointment was just the reality of being a high school student intern. However, I was proven wrong when a young male student joined the team months after me and was immediately handed tools and sent to work on-site.

The experience was disheartening.

Despite the sexism I experienced (language I did not have back then), I wanted to go into trades. Armed with Mr. Petti's mentorship, I was equally determined and skilled to enter the workforce. However, when the conversation became about my future, the common message I received from my advisors was "You are a straight-A (female) student, you took chemistry, physics, and calculus, you'll be going to University".

When I expressed interest in colleges to advisors, I was advised to look at other options on the University route like architecture, engineering, or even environmental science (because of my love for the environment and my grades in science). I remember feeling like no one was listening to me. I convinced myself that the adults in my life must know better. Although my parents were supportive and helped me try to source information to allow me to make informed choices, resources were lacking, and so my skilled trades journey ended there.

When I asked my mom about this memory recently she shared that, "We were supportive of you going into the trades, but wanted you to have both the college hands-on experience partnered with a university background. We were of the generation that still believed that, as a woman, you would have children and be less likely to want to continue with the physical labour side of the role after starting a family." It never occurred to me when I was young, that my parents were unsure how to best guide me and were looking for answers too.