Won't Be Driving - Thanks for the Help!

Heh, yeah, Polka Days, that was it. And we used to hit a whole string of towns down in that southern part of the state; it was just a big continuous party!

 

That's a good assessment in a lot of respects. Personally, my life has been anything but living in a closed world. I've been around the world a few times and lived and worked overseas in a couple of different countries and cultures for a few years. I've worked at quite a few different jobs, from filthy grunt work to the corporate world. Going into new situations is nothing new for me.

Reading this (and other) forums has been part of my evaluation. I also read a couple of books, which pretty much told the same story as what I got here, minus some of the negativity. I also went and talked with the instructor and students at a community college, to find out what their backgrounds and plans were.

The positive points that you laid out were part of the initial attraction to me. But there were too many things that worked against it for me. Being away from home for long periods of time for OTR. The difficulty in finding local jobs. Sitting behind the wheel on a daily basis - I like to take a long trip now and then, but being in a truck day after day would be a grind for me. Dealing with all the things that have to be done to stay legal, get the loads from point to point and keep the wheels rolling.

Probably the main thing I figured out along the way is that it requires a major commitment, it's not something a person can do on any kind of a casual basis. I already had one of those kinds of careers, and decided I didn't need to do it again.

So, all of this goes to the purpose of the thread, to present a viewpoint to those who may be thinking about it.