Now what?

I'm not concerned too bad with which school I go to. As long as it will teach me the basics to allow me to achieve my license that is fine with me. My problem is that there is only one close enough for me to drive to on a daily basis. It should be okay now that I got everything straightened out. I hope tomorrow will be promising so that I can get started as soon as possible. Thank you for the help and check back soon for more updates.

 

I guess it would probably be appropriate to give a background story as to how I came to this point. About 7 months ago I made the decision to quit my job and try and search for something, anything, that I could do that I actually liked doing to provide for my family. I know most of you are thinking; HA, that's not possible, quit dreaming and man up. But, I had saved up a descent amount of money and was going to give it a shot anyway. So, I started looking at every possible venture there was to try. Remember, I live in small town outside of a bigger small town in Arkansas so there are still things that have not been done or tried yet. I spent weeks researching every market, every location, and spoke with everyone that would give me a moment of their time. I actually came across a few really good possibilities but when the math was done these opprotunities didn't seem to have the longevity I was looking for. I then, of course, began looking into a different type of J-O-B that may interest me instead of bore me to the point of insanity.

There is not a lot of diversity when it comes to careers where I live and my search ended almost as quickly as it began. Then, in a last ditch effort to at least put my wifes' mind at ease, I stumbled across a search that said trucking jobs. Now, I will be honest with ya, I had tossed the idea around a few times in the past but never gave it any serious thought. However, this was going to be my new beginning and I knew not to overlook anything so I clicked on it. At that very moment is when I came face to screen with the newly acclaimed (by me, of course) 8th wonder of the modern world, The Truckers Report.com.

I could not believe what I was seeing. This site has everything anyone could ever want to know, or maybe even not want to know, about trucking. I started cruising around and reading when I stumbled across a new thread titled: "Help a trucker wanna be out!". I, like many of you TTR addicts, became enthralled by the story. I believe that it is one of the most popular threads here, as it should be. This, and many other threads, made me realize this may be what I was looking for.

Knowing what would be required of me once I began driving I wasn't sure my wife would go for it. Finally, a challenge, for me to show my wife that this could be what we have been looking for. I started studying this industry like "an egyptian wanting a new president". I found the positive and the negative. In my case the positive outweighs the negative as long as I would be willing to take my time and make the right decisions along the way. All that was left to do was make my case in front of the hardest jury known to man, the wife and family. I was very thorough in my presentation and even made sure that I put extreme emphasis on the cons of the job so that they wouldn't think that I was trying to sugar coat it. After much deliberation and a ton of questions I was given the O.K.

The weekend after my win in The Familys' Court I went fishing, while out on the lake, I received a phone call from one of the contacts I had made while on the prowl to find my own way. He informs me that there is a seasonal opprotunity that I should take a look at. I decided to check it out and give it a shot. I am not going to go into too much detail but, I will say this: Although, I didn't lose that much money, I did lose two months of my time and now could not afford to pay my way through school.

I could not believe that I was now unable to go through with trucking. I got very depressed, more then I care to even discuss. Now what was I going to do. I knew there wasn't anything out there as far as descent jobs. I was out of money and had nothing to show for it, not even a t-shirt. My wife told me to go to the unemployment office and see if there was something I could do that might interest me. I did not want to go because it seemed like I would be admitting defeat. Trying to hang onto a little pride I called everyone I knew trying to find a way out of this hole that I have now thrown myself to the bottom of. In the process of annoying everyone on my contacts list, someone asked me why I was so upset. Explaining my mistake to him he laughed and said "Look at it as a learning experience". That still didn't make it feel any better until he said "go to the WAEDA office and tell them you want to go to trucking school and, if you qualify, they will pay for it." I thanked him and immediately headed in that direction.

When I got to the office I told them what I wanted to do and they asked me some questions. If I didn't get foodstamps or some other type of govm't assistance I could still qualify but would have to be on a waiting list. I am not the type of person to ask for this kind of assistance because I know that there are people out there that need it way more than I do. On the other hand, if I didn't do something very quickly then I would be the person that needed help more than others. Me and my wife discussed it, she went and filed for food stamps and we were approved. I do not want them for any longer then I need them so I have to get a job quickly. In order to do that I have to go through trucking school first which requires a lot of paperwork. That is the reason in the first post I was so frantically trying to contact people at the university.

Things seem to be going very well at this point in my newly acquired adventure. In my first posting of this thread I believed this adventure might have been completed before I even had the chance to change my trucker status from wanna be to student. Then, I finally had the previlege of speaking with the "one man band" that runs the school that I am hoping to attend. I turned in my application for school assistance yesterday, Jan. 31, and have an appointment Friday, Feb. 4. The person that I spoke with said I have a good chance of getting in by the next enrollment which is Feb. 21.

I don't know if you believe in "signs" and I don't really either but on my way home from turning in my application, the truck for the school pulled out in front of me. I have actually been to the school and have never seen it. I will keep everyone up to date on my progress as it happens. Thanks for readin'

 

I will, and thanks. I cant wait until Friday gets here.

 

You were right. I just got a little worked up, I promise to have patience in the future. (Well, maybe, I'll try)

 

Thanx Chompi, I think I will calm down a little once I am in school and I know that I am on my way! I really hope that everyone is staying safe and warm during this weather.