WE'LL MAKE AN ELECTRICIAN OUT OF YOU YET

Even if it takes every penny we have.
The journeyman I'm working with said this to me today after I misunderstood a request to mark measurements down on a blueprint and marked them (correctly) but in the wrong place.
Instead of marking the measurements on the actual diagram, I listed them by number on the back of one of the pages.
He was like "no...That's not what I asked you to do"
And I was like "sorry, but I know what my notes mean and it may be important to tell you that I have never interpreted a blueprint ever in my life until today...please show me what to do"..
And he did, and then he said what he said.
I am lucky to be working with a journeyman who understands a newbie and understands real effort.
You don't have to tell me shit twice very often...I catch on quick, and in the case of these blueprints, I was on the page (so to speak) after a 2 minute tutorial.
I knew what to do.
It might help to say that he was in a FUCKING HOT attic and I was on the floor poking a rod through the holes where the new fixtures will be mounted for him to measure and for me to mark the blueprint.
I so want to be a competent electrician...it's been a LONG time since I was essentially clueless about a job.
I was an ace in the headache business and I knew how to get people to spill their guts at the drop of a proverbial hat (and I could kick your ass if I needed to :) )
But read blueprints? I don't think so. Until today...now I know.
This cluelessness brings up feelings of inadequacy, which throws me back to my days in the mental health field and my inclination is to "process my feelings" about the situation and come to some sort of "catharsis" and to "actualize my potential" and to ramble on about my experiences on the R.O.P.E.S course during break.
Don't get me wrong...I have lots of stories from those days that amuse and amaze the kind of people I've been working with for the last few years at asshole...I mean Hines and this electrician thing.
But the bottom line of this trade is learn it and do it...collect a catalog of technical information and perfect it and then pass it on to the next apprentice you end up with when you turn out as a journeyman.
I hope I make a good journeyman...and I think my background will make me a good one.