18 year old trucker?

mamas don't let your babies grow up to be truckers;
let em be doctors and lawyers and such

 

Definitely try community college first , if your already dismissing college my guess is you haven been doing that swell in your first yr of highschool , going to a community college is basically a second chance at making a good gpa for colleges , I'm 23 and I tried college and now I'm in driving school w/ Stevens transport! The fact of the matter is college is an investment and unless you go to a ivy leauge school or major in something math or science based , your gonna get a ###### return on your investment

that's just the bottom line , at the end of the day money talks

 

Go to college. Learn to learn. Pick up a trade as a job, a/c or mechanic, carpenter, etc. something that will at keast save you money some time in your life, if not make money. Firefighter is the way to go, don't get shot at, cush retirement (important yet rare anymore), and many times ...tuition reimbursement!!!! ( learn something for after you put your first 20 yrs in. If all goes well, firefighter at 20, retire at forty, take second government job 40-60, retire with second retirement income at 60, be a trucker on your terms 60- 70. Golf Zombie.

 

Listen kid I'm on your side , I also don't think school is for me , but I personally would of never done something like this w/o Atleast trying college first, not just for what you could learn , but for who you could meet , you could cross paths with someone who could change your life forever , like some of the other guys said it's pretty hard to get a good job until 22 or 23 anyway, I'm not saying do this at 30 or 40 once you've exhausted all your other options like the rest of these guys but 18-23 is a special time for life experiences you'll remember forever , networking , and maybe you end up liking college and find a different profession you think is cool if not you can do it at 22 or 23 , I don't mean to project my mindset but driving all over the country in a 70 foot tractor trailer that you'll. also be living in for 5-6 weeks at a time seems a little much for an 18 yr old , I'm barely coming to grips with that reality and I'm 23 , all I'm saying is your 14 , 4 yrs is along time ,set goals for yourself, don't be afraid to fail , you got plent of time

 

Hey Kid. This is long but it's WELL worth your time. I get you.

I got too brain dead at the end of page 2 of the very well meaning responses that unfortunately just don't get where I feel you are coming from, to read any more. So maybe someone got you and answered already. If so, I apologize. I also apologize to my well meaning friends here but we got a different kind of sprout here folks. This one was like some of us back in the day. Some of us had to do this 'cause of circumstance. Job. Pays Ok and a tough life, but swingable. Good at it cause that's what needs to be done. Rather do something else? Yeah. Didn't happen. This will do, and get good at it.

Some . . . we didn't want anything else. We were born to DRIVE. Anything! Mule, Horse, car, truck, boat, train, tank, plane, SKATEBOARD. We were born and made to DRIVE. It's so much more than what we DO. It's who we ARE! They call us . . . True Drivers. It's not what we do. It's who we are.

You don't choose it. IT chose YOU, before you were born. Kinda sux 'cause it's probably one of the toughest lives there is and you really got no choice in the matter. Nothing you ever do satisfies that call to the road like being an Over The Road (OTR), Nationwide DRIVER - of ANYTHING. The Road calls too strong to be happy anywhere else than everywhere. My Momma told me once;

"You were an EASY baby to pacify, from the day we brought you home from the Hospital. You got fussy and all we had to do was put you in the car and drive." "

Oh, I get it Momma; I'd nod off and smooth on out."

"No Son. You perked right up. Teeny eyes wide and bright, tiny toothless smile wide as the Glades (Florida country) and cooing. Head moving all around way before they say baby's are supposed to be. Wide awake as a kitten with a yarn ball. From the day you were born. From your first week here, all we had to do to settle you down was put you in something and get it moving. You'd outlast whoever was driving and we'd have to finally deal with you coming to ground, but it was the dangedest thing you ever saw in a baby. Squalling miserable, til we got you moving in or on something. Didn't seem to matter what. Beast or machine. You was just only gonna hush if you was moving."

As a troubled young man visiting, she told me (my folks later worked into Gentry of quite some means) as I faced the music of being a bit of the family oddity and out of place (my parents went on to great heights, my brother and sister - I am the oldest by a fair bit - became an attorney and prosperous contractor). "You're just fine Baby Boy (I'm 30 at this point and a VERY troubled life trying to be all kinds of things that weren't ME, and coming home as a "Truck Driver") at a particular Thanksgiving back home in the big house I never knew and a now big Sugar Plantation in the Glades, . . .

"What took you so long to get comfortable in your own skin and understand THAT is what is most important in life? From the day God graced me with you, you were always you. He done well putting you together. You done well figuring out what he put you together to do. You are both happy with it. So . . . roll with it and be happy. About a billion or so can't say they are, if truth be known. It's all good Son. Just roll til you don't need to roll anymore. Just stay true to your conscience on right and wrong and you'll be just fine. No matter WHAT happens!"

Later that night my Dad totally cut me off from everything. We got into it about everything from my whole life; In his defense (now that I am much older and just a wee bit wiser), I did have a penchant for the ladies (OK - I was a slut puppy) and the strong drink (OK I was a total party Aminal!), but since I did it on my own dime and my own OTR Diver way - Dad had no say in the matter. The raw Cane Rum flowing certainly didn't help. There in his "Office" / den / study, was a flourished box of antique Spanish dueling pistols. Dad loved them.

I guarantee we BOTH thought about them and looked at each other with a kinda: Let's GO thing for a moment. But, wisely for both, we just walked away. I walked away from my family and most especially my Dad that had no CLUE that what I felt, I couldn't help. The road was my home. It's something in my bones, my flesh, every fiber of my being . . . my Soul. DRIVER MUST DRIVE. Waterways, rails, flightpaths or roads . . . still just . . . driving something. Again, it ain't something we choose. It's chosen for us before we are born. All we can do is figure out a way to make it work for us while we're here. Mine happened to be OTR Tucks. Other "born drivers" find themselves in other areas. Same life. just different Mules, roads and resting places. Resting places. That's it. No Home til your done. Just resting places. Not bad at all and the only thing you CAN do if you be a true driver. One condition . . . you MUST be comfortable in your own skin, 'cause the man in the mirror will be your ONLY companion for 98% of your time; awake or asleep. Better be Ok w/ him or it will be a MISERABLE life.

Now Sprout: Thing is you got a blink of an eye and a thousand years in front of you. What a "friend" does with you there in a seemingly fun thing may be the end of your days or it may turn out to be a fond memory of just fun. What YOU do from this moment on will define what you can and can't do for the rest of your days on earth; may they be many and mostly happy. Gotta have some sad so you know what glad is. That's just life.

You want to be a true driver, huh? Hang around some of the Old Guard Drivers in your area and listen and learn. A lot will be BS "Driver Tales". A lot will be truth. If you got a good head and true heart . . the answers will all come . . . in good time. Patience, honest introspection, self knowledge and the courage of your convictions to yourself and your conscience (my, oh MY how it whispers CONSTANTLY - best way to keep it quiet is to be true to it and yourself - once you figure out who YOU are) are the MOST difficult part of growing up is making all this mish-mash of mush come together in a way that works for YOU.

Your choice of playmates and playgrounds determine what game you will play. How you play the game . . . is all on you. Wanna be a true driver? Hang around true, good, solid, Old School DRIVERS. The rest will come.

If THAT be your game to play. Me? I'm just an old Florida Cracker (search it. it's not a term for a racial prejudice - it originally means Florida "Swamp Cowboy"; had to be able to crack a whip to make the cows walk through the swamps between the pastures - hence "cracker", all you'd hear was CRACK, CRACK, CRACK!!! like the fourth of July, when moving a heard) and Mule Driver. We preferred Mules over horses. Not nearly as fast, but could out pull a horse 10 to one. Thing is, they are also the second most stubborn and orneriest creature on earth. Got to know how to crack a whip to get the to go where they DON'T want to go. Not hit them with it. Hit 'em and you'd cut their skin, heavy and thick as it is. Same with the cows. A good crack that hit its hide cut it. High heat and humidity and infection set in quick and either cost the owner a bunch of money for a vetinary (few and far between back then), or sepsis set in and it died. Then you wasn't a cracker or even any kind of a cow hand. You was a cow killer. Good luck finding work. A Cracker was a Florida Cowboy that rode and drove (hitched to a wagon to pull through the swamps that horses couldn't pull it through) a MULE and made the cows go where they were supposed to go by cracking a whip an inch from their ears w/o hitting them. CRACK!

Just a big pop right at their ear so they know you mean business. You at that age that a LOT of cracking is going on around YOUR ears. I'd say 14 is probably the toughest time in a man's life. Hormones kicking in strong, body growing real strong. Mind just struggling to catch up to the body and everyone's expectations. Big time fork in your road. They tend to come in two's after that till your late 20's. You got this Kid. You really do. It just doesn't feel like it yet. Just be patient. First rule in trucking is . . . be patient.

I wish you the best in Life, Love and Happiness . . . wherever you find it!!