New Truckers after the first 30 day solo, Share your thoughts

Looking back, I thought I was as prepared as I could be for a newbie. However, as said before you really can't know what it is like and how you will take to it all until you are out there.

We have good days and bad days, we are all a bit moody. When you work locally and are having a bad day or are in a bad mood it isn't that big a deal because your day will end and you will be home and able to put it behind you and have a better day tomorrow.
However, when you are OTR and having a bad day or a bad mood you will also be miles away from home and anything familiar, and may not even know when you will get home again. That as a newbie is a difficult thing and it is very easy to let yourself think yourself into a big funk and if not careful make some stupid choices. We had a new driver who got into such a funk and was just shy of 175 miles from his home and wife that he missed deeply, so, since he had worked his 70 and needed a 34 hour reset, he drove home, well, you can't do that and he lost his job and hasn't been able to get another. When you are out there and you want to be home it is very easy to focus on all the bad things and that makes it worse.

When you are a newbie there is so much you don't know and it takes more concentration, effort and time to do things you do sort of know, like logs and all they taught you in school. You get very exhausted, mentally, emotionally and physically. You are not sleeping well, eating well, you are not used to sitting so much, Right now, there are a bunch of things that you take for granted until you live in the truck for awhile. Like having room to get dressed and undressed. I am a small person by most standards, I was the smallest in my class at truck driving school, I am 5'3 and 126-130lbs... I found it frustrating getting dressed and undressed in the top bunk, about the size of a coffin, or even behind the curtain. That truck that seems so big now, can close in on you and feel like a VW.

Now, I love trucking, the scenery, the challenge, the experience. So I am not trying to be negative here. I do not regret going to school and being out here. In fact I am very glad I did get my CDL and am OTR. There are many little things I love about being out here that make putting up with the many little inconveniences worth it, at least for me anyway.