“I don’t know. It’s just fun. I’ve been around it my whole life.”

Tyler M is 17 years old. He loves cars—but more than cars; really, he just loves mechanics.

“My dad has been tinkering around with cars since I can remember,” says Tyler. “Naturally, I liked to help him, and I absolutely fell in love with it. Just taking something that’s broken and fixing it with your own hands…it’s just an awesome feeling.”

Tyler’s first experience with mechanics came when his dad bought him a go-kart. He was 13 at the time.

“Yeah, I had been bugging him for a go-kart for years. When he took me out to the garage and I saw it, I was in disbelief. It was probably the coolest thing he’s gtten for me.”

The only catch was it didn’t run, and his dad wasn’t going to help him.

“He told me I had to fix it by myself. He’d buy the parts, but he wouldn’t do any work.”

So Tyler started diagnosing and taking it apart. His third day on the job, he finally got the go-kart to run.

“Me and my friend were in the garage and we thought it was ready to run. So we pulled the cord, and it ran, alright. Right out of the garage. I couldn’t believe it. The thing went by itself and was flying out of the garage. It took a hard left out of the garage and into the backyard. We were chasing after it, but that thing was cruising. There was no way we’d catch it. So it’s flying across the yard and it turns left again…right into our swimming pool. It bent the support bar and left a dent in the side of the pool. It was absolutely hilarious. The best part was my parents were selling the house that week and the people that bought it never saw the dent.”

The problem was a high idle. The carburetor needed to be adjusted.

“We took care of that no problem.”

He eventually moved on from fixing his go-kart to fixing his car.

“They’re the same, basically. Just more parts on the car. It’s a little more challenging, but I love it.”

Tyler plans to attend WCTC for Auto Mechanics, go figure. He is excited to be able to pursue mechanics.

“I can’t believe I can actually turn what I love to do into my career. It’s everybody’s dream, and I can actually do it.”