Wednesday, October 20, 2010

College Essay

When                         When  I was six years old my father had bought me my first race-car game. After playing the game for quite some time, I realized that I had started to become strongly interested in cars, and learning how they work. My father himself had been repairing and fixing cars and trucks almost all his life, and because of him, I was given the opportunity to be able to learn and have a much greater understanding of how to repair and maintain them. I first started by just watching him do the work, and when he had asked, I would go and fetch the tool that he needed to use. It was amazing to watch how he would be able to take something apart and get the vehicle to run much better than it did before. He had taught me how to diagnose and troubleshoot problems, and how to “properly” fix them. To this day I’m starting to be able to learn how to watch for problems, and be able to know how to fix it.
Before I began my freshman year in high school, my father had started to let me do some of the work myself, so I can gain experience. I started out with simple work, like changing the oil and oil filter, changing brake pads and rotors, and jacking up the car. , I was starting to become a mechanic. From learning to change the oil and filter, and changing brakes, he started to let me do other things as well, like doing a basic tune up, changing tie-rods, ball joints, and other parts in the steering and suspension in cars. I also started to learn how to change and clean batteries, change starters, alternators, check fuses and relays, and replace them. As I started doing some of the work, we were able to get the job done a little quicker than if it were just he by himself. But the time that we get the job done in also depends on whether we run into any problems. There were a lot of times when we would run into problems, whether it is a tool we forgot, if it were the right part, or if a bolt snapped, or we stripped the head of a bolt.
Over the summer, we had a car that needed hub bearings, and front brakes done on it. When we got it all apart, we found that the hub itself needed to be replaced. That part we needed is something that had to be ordered from a dealership, or found in a junkyard. Luckily we found one in a junkyard, but then we had to go to somewhere else to get the hub bearings compressed to the hub. All of this took almost a week to do, but the job was done, and the customer was happy with the work. We then had another car, not too long ago, that needed a water pump done on it. We got the water pump out no problem, but it took us a while to figure out why the fan blade would not come off of the pump. We found that not only did the water pump need to be changed; the fan blade needed a new fan clutch. To do this it took us a couple of days, since we needed to order more parts, but we got the job done, and got the car back to the customer.
            These experiences with my father have helped me become a good auto mechanic. Because of that, I want to go and pursue my goal of becoming an ASE certified mechanic to work on cars and trucks. So not only would I just work on customer cars, but also on my own, and my families. I know myself that I will become successful, because I enjoy working on cars, and I also enjoy making myself and others feel happy, and to also give them my word that I will do the best to my ability to fix whatever problem they have.

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