Blog 1 – Conner Kazema
June 18, 2018 11:54 am Leave your thoughts
I would just like to open by expressing how excited I am to get to blog my experience working in the forestry industry throughout the summer! This is my first time working in the forest products industry so I am excitedly anticipating what the future months have in store for me.
I’ll spare some time to talk about myself so as to quell any confusion from potential readers of this blog. My name is Conner Kezema. I was born here, in Hudson Bay Saskatchewan in February of 1997, making myself 21 years old as of writing this. I lived in Hudson Bay for 19 years before heading to school in Regina where I have been pursuing my Bachelor of Education through the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program (but that’s a mouthful, so we just call it SUNTEP for short).
As long as I’ve been alive, and even longer before that, my father was employed by Weyerhaeuser, so my family has been graciously supported by the forest product industry for decades. Therefore, when offered the job as a summer student for Weyerhaeuser this year, I eagerly accepted and began on May 1st.
The first month and a half has been great so far, and I don’t expect that to change! In all honesty I had to fight some nerves when dealing with the learning curb of operating different machines and vehicles. Learning the forklifts, for example, was exceedingly stressful. But my nerves were dispatched fairly quickly as I slowly practiced hauling OSB (Oriented Strand Board) and stacking them.
The people I’ve worked with have been fantastic so far. I’ve been given in depth tours of the mill and the operation process of the entire place is becoming a lot clearer. Not crystal clear mind you. More along the lines of starting with muddied water, and now it’s been filtered a few times and I can sort of see through it a bit better. If that analogy makes sense. If not we’re moving on anyways!
For a night owl like myself, the prospect of waking up at 5:30am seemed like a far off, unreachable task. However, it’s not actually as bad as I’d initially perceived it to be! The crisp clean morning air is actually very refreshing and a great way to start the day before walking in through the double doors of Weyerhaeuser and suiting up to start the day!
All things considered I am extremely excited to see where this job takes me and the different experiences I’ll get to take in and learn from. Many of my superiors here, upon learning of my selection for the Green Dream internship, have told me of the many different places in and around Weyerhaeuser that I can blog about throughout the summer. So I’m eager to do just that! I can’t wait to show off what Hudson Bay and Weyerhaeuser have to offer!
