There’s No Grass Growing under the Feet of this Future Welder

Ty Cessnun

“I’m usually pretty tired by the time I get home,” admits Ty, 22, who will no doubt spend more time at AC this fall than most anyone who does not actually reside at the College.

That’s because he not only works weekdays at AC from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., he attends welding classes at the East Campus from 6-10 p.m., five nights a week. He fills the intervening ‘lull’ by rigorously pumping iron at AC’s Carter Fitness Center.

Ty is clearly a very busy man, not the sort to let grass grow under his feet. Quite the contrary, in fact; he works full time as an AC groundskeeper and spends eight hours a day mowing and trimming grass — or pruning trees, or even removing snow, when it comes to that.

Beginning his physical workday at 6 o’clock means getting up at 4:30, and his days are pretty much non-stop after that. Once back home, around 10:30 p.m., he eats and hits the sack.

“I won’t say my days are easy,” said Ty, who does his homework on the weekends. “Sometimes I’m pretty exhausted, but I believe that as long as you’re motivated you can do anything. I’ve found that if I don’t work out in the afternoons, I’m too tired to go to school that night. Going to the gym sort of rejuvenates me for class.”

Ty joined the AC workforce when he graduated from River Road High School. That was almost five years ago, when he still entertained a dream of one day becoming a professional bull rider. He followed that dream for a spell and considers himself fortunate to have fractured only a femur and a forearm along the way.

“I gave that up mostly because it cost too much going up and down the road and, well, I wasn’t winning,” Ty said. “At least I got to follow my dream for a while, which not everyone can say, but sometimes God opens the door to bigger and better things.”

Ty gave that door a nudge himself about a year ago when he began taking classes at his longtime workplace. He compiled a 3.6 grade point average in a variety of courses — algebra, history, English, etc. It was this past summer when he decided to pursue a career in welding, and now he finds himself immersed nightly in classes like Technical Communication, Machine Shop Mathematics, Introduction to Welding, and more.

He aspires to ownership one day of a welding business, to being his own boss. This dream, bolstered as it is by a purposeful work ethic, portends a very bright future for Mr. Ty Cessnun, so bright that he may soon be needing those sunglasses after all.