Page 4 • Wednesday , December 14 , 2022 • The Hammonton Gazette
Dougherty , 20 , is working as an automotive technician
AUSTIN , from Page 1 job close to home that made it easy for him to commute .
Dougherty ’ s interest in cars started with his mother , as she was heavily interested in cars herself . That mutual interest helped them connect , he said .
“ It was something that we could bond over and because of that , I kind of grew a bit of an interest in it . I didn ’ t know much about it at the time but at 14 or 15 years old , it was just cool to me ,” Dougherty said .
Dougherty ’ s mother unfortunately got sick and passed away . The same interest in cars that led to his bond with his mother was then used as a coping mechanism .
“ I bought a car , it wasn ’ t running and it was a piece of crap , and I used it and was tinkering on it and learning with it as I fixed it slowly and slowly as a way of better dealing with the stresses that were going on in my life ,” Dougherty said .
He said he wanted to move away from the negative and toward the positive in his life .
“ Getting into trouble , doing things I shouldn ’ t have been doing and focusing on that . That ’ s what ended up making me decide I wanted to go to Universal Technical Institute . That ’ s how I kind of got inspired to do that was a bit for my mom and a bit through just trying to keep myself on a good track on a career that made me happy ,” Dougherty said .
His mother ’ s death helped shape him in the way that he would look at how she handled the situation she was in when she was
sick and reflected on that himself .
“ We all have hardships in life and everybody deals with them differently but she clearly had it a lot harder than most people ,” Dougherty said .
“ So when I was able to see that she was positive and passionate and motivated person to keep trying hard and working hard and just staying happy , I took that upon myself after she passed to try and do better and applying that into my own life and that ’ s kind of what , in a way pushed me to keep working that hard and in a way follow in her footsteps ,” Dougherty said .
What Dougherty likes about working at Cherry Hill Imports is the challenge and the difficulty . Being able to do something that not a lot of people can do and appreciating the challenge of working on cars that are hard to work on , as he described , while trying to look clean and professional driving and working on customers ’ cars . “ There ’ s customers whose cars See DOUGHERTY , Page 18
Austin Dougherty