Some of Gage Lawson's earliest memories aren't of toys or television — they're of a house taking shape. He was two or three years old, watching his grandfather work. His grandfather had come out of the military as a carpenter and never really stopped building — houses, woodworking projects, whatever needed doing. For a small kid, it was something close to magic.

"I remember seeing the basement and then all the walls being framed," Gage said. "It's pretty cool."

That image stuck. It became, in many ways, the blueprint.

"My grandpa — that's where it all started," he said.

Today, Gage is a senior with a clear sense of direction, built not from guesswork but from years of hands-on work, a natural instinct to figure things out, and a willingness to take on problems most people would hand off to someone else. When he got his 1994 Ford Ranger and decided he wanted to wire up speakers and an amp, he didn't ask anyone to do it for him.

"I had no clue how to do that," he said. "But I took it on as a challenge. I like being challenged."

That instinct showed up long before he ever set foot in a classroom. Back in middle school, Gage and his best friend Sam decided to build a skate park in Sam's backyard. They poured concrete forms, made their own pavers, built BMX and skateboard ramps, and tried to link them together. Sam's mom brought in a contractor to help with the finishing work, but the core of it was two kids and their hands.

"We were just working hands-on and figuring it out," Gage said.

From there, the path was clear. Freshman year at Galesburg High School, Gage saw the list of available courses and spotted Intro to Construction immediately. "I thought construction workers were always cool," he said. He signed up, got into electrical and framing, and just kept going — woodworking, building trades one, building trades two. This year, the capstone: working on an actual house in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. The program has also been sharpening electrical skills, updating knowledge on GFCI outlets, and modern code — and for good reason.

Last year, Gage and a couple of teammates from another school entered Skills USA and came home with third in the state. This year, they're going for first — which would send them to nationals in Georgia.

"We're hoping this year we can get first and go to nationals," he said.

His instructor at GAVC, Brad Shenaut, has been a central figure in all of it. "He taught me everything that I know, pretty much," Gage said. But the education hasn't been limited to the vocational center. His dad — who works in plumbing and heating — brought Gage into a full ductwork overhaul of the family basement, teaching him how to use a brake and work through an old brick foundation. Dirty work, Gage says, but pretty fun.

Part of what drives him is practical. He grew up, as he puts it, not having a lot of money, in a household where hiring someone wasn't really an option. So he learned to do things himself — and somewhere along the way, necessity became preference.

"I also grew up not having a lot of money," he said. "Trying to hire somebody was not an option. So I try to learn everything myself, so I don't have to depend on somebody else."

After graduation, Gage plans to enter a four-year apprenticeship with the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council in Pekin — earning while he trains, building hours on real job sites, working toward union membership and the benefits that come with it. But carpentry is a means, not an end. His longer-term target is real estate — flipping houses, renting them out, building a portfolio. He's already thinking about which states offer the best return on investment.

"I want to get into real estate," he said. "Flip houses, rent them out." The trade skills, he figures, are the edge — the reason he won't have to pay out labor costs that eat into margins. "I don't want to pay somebody else to do it. I can do it myself."

He's already mapped out the early steps: stay close to home, eventually take over his grandparents' house, fix it up, use it as a launchpad. Buy another. Live in it, rent the first one. Keep building.

"I try to plan everything out," he said.

Not bad for a kid who started by watching walls go up before he could tie his shoes.