The OTR loneliness

I have to agree. It depends on how often you keep in contact or get back "home". The part that gets me, is because I'm not there on a daily basis, I don't hear about things (so-n-so in the hospital, etc,) until a month or two later.
I guess I try to keep that to a minimum by purposefully asking about everybody and everything.
Having an unlimited phone plan helps.

 

I will be getting a taste of this in reverse - Hubby starting OTR before me - so we will be separated for a couple months until I get my CDL and trained. Then we are going to team - so I will be home - mushy I know - but my home is where ever my husband is

 

German Girl. After awhile you look at things from a different perspective. I use to be single when I first started driving. It never bothered me. It helps if you can be like a parakeet content by yourself in a cage. I deployed once while single, then deployed again to your homeland after I was married and had a daughter in the 3rd grade. Driving in today's era is a lot easier. If you make friends on here and keep in touch you will eventually cross paths and meet some of them. I have met quite a few drivers just as friends as I am married and not looking. I know of one driver who I have met that is seeing someone they met on here. You just never know when and where you will cross paths with someone.

You might meet someone that has the same interests as you. I take it you are solo now. How did you like your training? Is this anything like you expected? One thing that will help you transition your life is to get acquainted with people who do the same thing. I had several people I talked with on a regular basis. It helps pass the time out on the road. Some I would talk with for a good while each week. Was nice to post and find out where people was and try to meet up with them. I have several who still call and I am no longer on the road. If anything you could make some good friendships and that helps take away the loneliness.

 

I think you said it best Germangirl...the old "normal" is gone and it becomes a new world altogether when we go OTR. I have made a couple of friends that drive and that helps a little but i still don't know exactly how to adapt to the loneliness just hope that as time passes maybe it will somehow make sense to me and with a little luck get better.

 

I think the hardest thing about trucking, after ten years now, is my relationships with extended family and friends. When you are home one weekend a month, my wife and kids pretty much monopolize my time. Now I find myself in a situation where I haven't seen some of my siblings, and some of my best friends in over a decade. I look at nephews and nieces that I was pretty close to on Facebook, and they are all 19 or 20 years old, when I remember them as children. I have a sister that I haven't seen in ten years, and when I tried to contact her, I found that she's downright angry at me for being out of her life for so long.

This is one aspect of trucking I wasn't prepared for.

 

Cannot blame TRUCKING on not keeping in touch with family , phone call , post card , Christmas card , email , ecte all available.

I know people with office jobs , home every night , work Mon - Fri and yet have not talked to relatives 10 minutes away in years.

 

true enough, but we are creatures of habit. Also, I'm the oldest of ten kids, so going around to see everyone every time I get home would be quite time consuming.


Then there are old friends from college, that I used to go out tearing up the town with on weekends...

I guess I posted that as a warning to the newbies.
Time can go by fast, and relationships die, if you don't keep up with them.

 

Well said.