Here we go, my PRIME opportunity...

w00t! Application approved! Orientation next Tuesday June 28th, waiting on my email with bus ticket info and details. Incredibly excited!!!



Thank you both for your words of encouragement. Yes, breathing, sleeping and many other things have been harder than usual, I really need this to work for my family. This forum has been an invaluable tool to me in the last couple years, as I have patiently waited for the opportunity to pursue a trucking career.

Trucking for me started when I was barely old enough to remember, my father was a HazMat Tanker driver with Rogers Cartage out of Indiana. My dad passed away when I was 3 but I still remember being driven out to terminals and truckstops in the middle of the night and climbing into that HUGGGGEEE tractor and falling asleep to a big Detroit going down the interstate, the crackle of radio voices, air valves blowing pressure, and my dad holding that ever huge steering wheel.

After my dad died, his Will specified I was to stay with some dear friends of his whom have come to be my parents, although never legally, I was a ward of the state for 15 years. My foster father was also a Rogers Cartage company driver, pulling those same silver bullets with red Macks and Peterbilts. I remember when I was about 4 or 5, being scared to death to ride my SpiderMan Big Wheel in front of that huge Mack, I was sure the grill was a mouth and it was going to eat me up!!!

With my real dad being a Rogers driver, my foster dad being a Rogers driver, and my real dads brother (my Uncle) ALSO being a Rogers driver, its pretty much in my blood and I've been exsposed to it all my life.

Fast forward to today, and unfortunately, straight out of high school I made alot of bad choices and kept my driving record in constant limbo until the age of 27 at which point I finally decided to screw my head on straight and clean up if I ever wanted to do this. Now I'm 31 and finally have everything in order, and God Bless, but this economy is nearly forcing me into my dream career. The last 2 years has been very hard on my family, endless temporary jobs followed by layoffs, cold calls and unanswered applications, endless trips to the unemployment office for job searches, sleepless nights on the computer scouring job sites for hours on end. Finally, we have been laid off for the last time, exhausted our savings, maxed our credit cards, drawing food stamps, and I am #### determined and hell bent that my family and my kids will have something.

I'm 31 and re-married with 2 children. One of whom I cannot see because he has been moved to West Virginia. Cannot see because we do not have the money. I cannot even see my parents in Indiana on a regular basis, let alone my own child. I own no land or property besides our belongings and 1 car. I'm sick and tired and I'm going to do something about it. I wont get rich in trucking, but I will be able to provide for my family on a higher level, and we WILL have something. Our government has told us that my generation of children is the first in this country that is expected, on the whole, to do worse than the generation prior. NOT ON MY WATCH.

Currently, I am 7 years this month out of Bankruptcy (finally!), both our credit scores are excellent, we owe no debt outside of 2 credit cards that are current and are really not that high. We've worked extremely hard on our credit since we married, and I think that combined with trucking income, we can probably have whatever we want in a few years. Every third house on most streets around here is for sale, so the way I see it, if you've got credit and you've got the money (working on that part), the world is your oyster right now. Land is dirt cheap right now, just nobody has the income to buy it.

Anyways, this is a new chapter in our families life, and were doing it to improve our quality of life, as well as fulfill my actual lifelong dream of being a trucker. Theres lots to do now, were going to have a HUGE sale this weekend. EVERYTHING goes. Momma and daughter are moving back in with her parents until we are firmly situated at Prime. That way she has family support with the baby, we'll raise some needed cash to kick this off and make it til training pay starts, and hopefully the next move will be into a house that we own.

Gotta get off here and go read my email, I've got a bus ticket leaving Elizabethtown on Monday the 27th, due in Springfield on Tuesday. I've got me a CDL manual printed out from the state website (167 Pages!, it used all my ink!!!). Time to sell, study, plan, and make this happen. Nervous, excited, scared, you name it.

BTW, my handle on the radio is Blackbird. Out...

 

Were on our way to Elizabethtown, KY to get my bus ticket. Thanks to the internet and primarily Facebook, we've sold most of our big ticket items already. Tomorrow is the actual moving sale here at the house, but need to be back here by 3pm to let some people look at a few things.

Busy busy...