First day of truck driving school today

Well, I had my first day of truck driving school today. And I'm surprised that I'm sort of feeling strange about it.

The school seemed fine. Went over stuff, the teacher had been driving for about 20 years. Felt like I was learning good stuff.

My ex and I broke up a couple of years ago, and she took my son and moved to New York. Not to get into detail, but I've been seeing him for about a week every couple of months, partially because I'm broke and partially because she isnt quite the cooperative type. But anyway...

After thinking about it, I decided on trucking. I haven't made decent money doing something I like (did collections and made good money for about three months, but couldnt stomach bullying old ladies on social security into giving up money they didnt have).

I guess I figured that I've been feeling like no matter what I do I'm gonna hate it. So I thought about trucking and realized that sounded good to me. Get to do more than your average 9-5 where the scene never changes. Steady (decent) pay. And I'd be on the road, so i figured I would just be thrifty and save a bunch, I dunno, maybe enough for a lawyer so I could get some decent visits with my son.

Just so happens that I have him this week, and even though he doesn't live with me, I still got this wierd "leaving your family" feeling.

Anyway. I know I want to do this. I've been hearing from some people that its an unsafe profession. My instructor kind of seems to have the attitude of "eh, it is what it is."

I just want to be able to drive a truck, make decent money, and not be stuck in a box (office job). Drove a delivery van about 500 miles a day for six months in 2007 and loved it. I guess I want to get that feeling back. But I have a girlfriend, who hopefully will be a fiancee sooner than later, and though I want to go OTR, I just dont want to get stuck being gone for months at a time. 3 weeks out of a month on the road would probably work. But I gotta have some time at home, ya know?

Am I barking up the wrong tree with trucking? Being too optimistic about money and being able to save and freedom and all that?

Sorry in advance if this isn't the most coherent post ever.

 

I hear ya man. Was sitting here starting to think that myself. I'm not going to lose anything by giving it a shot. And besides, deep down I know I really want this. I dunno, maybe its just fear of success. Or fear of running over someone on a right hand turn (covered that in class today, lol).