Nicole Page
Seeing other people’s thinking — even when she disagrees.
Nicole first came to Philosofarian with her ex-boyfriend. She walked in without much expectation. She’s a welder, a single mom, and someone who spends her days solving problems with heat, metal, sparks, and motion. Philosophical conversation wasn’t part of her routine.
She found something she didn’t expect:
a room where disagreement didn’t mean conflict
and where people could follow each other’s thinking even when they didn’t share the same view.
That hooked her.
What Opened Up for Her
Nicole describes Philosofarian as something that “opened my mind to more options.” She liked realizing she could offer a thought, hear someone else offer theirs, and walk out still holding her own view while understanding another path of thinking alongside it.
She said,
“I might still consider what I have to say — what I stand by after the night is over — but what’s beautiful is realizing that my take isn’t the only one.”
That’s the part that stayed with her:
the experience of real disagreement handled with patience, curiosity, and care — something she doesn’t always see in the shop at work.
A Question That Stayed With Her
One question lingered for her long after the night she first asked it:
Do you remember everything, and is it stored somewhere inside the mind?
Or do some things fade for good?
Nicole laughed while describing the picture that pops up for her — a room full of filing cabinets she imagines opening whenever she tries to reach for an old thought.
It’s a mix of humor and curiosity that fits her way of thinking.
Nicole at the Trades Women Build Nations conference.
Why She Keeps Coming Back
Nicole talks about the diversity in the room — “so many walks of life in one place,” as she put it.
That variety is what makes the thinking feel real to her.
She works with people she disagrees with every day. The conversations at Philosofarian reminded her that disagreement can be thoughtful, interesting, and steady — and that people everywhere, even in the hectic world of welding, are carrying their own questions if you give them a chance to bring them forward.
She likes finding the moments where she can ask the right kind of question at the right time and watch someone show what they’re thinking.
That’s what keeps her coming back.
Nicole with fellow female welders, pipe fitters, and union members.
Where She Is Now
Nicole still welds, still parents, and still carries big questions into her day. She’s also become someone younger tradeswomen look to for guidance. She speaks at local community colleges about the union, scholarships, and the realities of stepping into a field where most of the people around you are men. She tells the truth about the challenges and the support she’s received, and she encourages women who are just beginning to picture themselves in the trade.
This fall she traveled to the Tradeswomen Build Nations conference in Chicago, joining more than five thousand women from across the country. They shared their own histories — the hard days, the help they found along the way, the mentors who saw potential when others didn’t. For Nicole, being in that crowd felt like another version of what she experiences at Philosofarian: people thinking together, learning from one another, and lifting each other up in ways that stay with you.
She brings that approach back into her work. Whether she’s teaching a student how a weld holds or talking through a moment of strain with a coworker, she pays attention to the person in front of her. The habits she strengthened at Philosofarian show up in those moments — asking good questions, noticing how someone explains their view, and remembering that people often carry more thoughtfulness than they show at first.
She still joins Philosofarian gatherings when she can, and the way she listens has become part of her everyday work in a field that isn’t always known for reflection. Nicole keeps widening the room for thinking, wherever she is.
“I might still consider what I have to say — what I stand by after the night is over — but what’s beautiful is realizing that my take isn’t the only one.”
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