I never thought I would be a trucker, even though the wanderlust has been in my blood for as long as I can remember. I grew up in, at the time, a small town in Massachusetts called Franklin. It was named after one of our countries fore fathers and even has a public library that holds original books penned and donated by Benjamin Franklin himself. You can't check them out anymore, but you can look at them through a glass window. Growing up in a small town was fun for the most part, the quiet at night was only broken by sounds of the crickets and tree frogs with the occasional hiccup of bullfrog. The night symphony was what I went to sleep with for a long long time.
My first major interest was computers and technology. I was an 80's child, which means that video games and arcades were the biggest draw in my life. I loved those electronic cartoons that you could manipulate and destroy, only to be able to do it again with another quarter. The very first computer in my house was a ADAM computer. The first computer that I ever owned was a Commodore 64. I damn near devoured it up when I got it. As time went on, I learned about modems and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) and how to connect with other people through those systems. Then came the day that I was able to get my hands on a copy of a BBS myself. That changed my world, I dove into how it worked and pulled it apart bit by bit, literally. I taught myself BASIC programming and started to code my own programs to work within that environment.
When I went to high school, I tried to find a course on computer programming. The interest and burning desire was there. However, the class was not. I settled for Electronics for a course because there were computers involved. It was not what I was looking for. So, I switched from Electronics to Culinary. Thus started my path on Cooking for a living.
I graduated high school with a trade certificate that stated I had completed the allotted time frame for Culinary and I was ready for the world. Yeah right, that was a harsh lesson learned. Five years or so I cooked. I worked for McDonalds a couple times, nursing homes and hell even an Italian restaurant. I finally ended up working for the State at one of their older mental hospitals. It was good money and hard work but the state hospitals were slowly being phased out. The job itself had an expiration date.
Around 1994, the internet start become really popular in the private sector. BBS's were slowly being phased out of popularity because people could now go on this new Internet thing and talk to millions of different people and find tons of new an interesting information. I was one of those flocking people. Not only did I sign up, I went to the company itself to see what it was all about. The CEO gave me a personal tour of the facility setup and told me that if I were interested in working there, all I had to do was create a resume and send it in for consideration. Long story short, I did it. Thus I changed my interest and now trade back to a computer and technology standpoint.
I worked at the internet company for 5 years and loved every minute of it. I thought I would regret it at first but never did. After 5 years and a company sell out to a corporation. The corporation in question went bankrupt and we all lost our jobs. This was around 2001 and the following year I separated from my then wife. The relationship breakdown had nothing to do with my working ability or finding employment. However the time between 2001 and present I have considered my nomadic time of my life. After the separation, I left not only my wife but the state I lived in. I felt that this was no longer home and I felt a call to go out there, somewhere. I feel that this was the very first time that I answered the call to my wanderlust properly. Knowing only that I had a room available to me in Pennsylvania, I didn't even hesitate to hop in the car and go.
I worked a lot of different jobs after that. Mostly technical and a lot of them temp work thru agencies. There was a time that all I had to do was update my resume on Monster.com and I would get a call from someone in 3 days. I moved around from state to state, even going back to Massachusetts for a couple years and then leaving again. No one place, as of yet, has felt like home to me. People feel like home, but never a place.
Now, I reside in Florida, just a little north of Orlando. The temp agencies have dried up for me. All the tech jobs are over in the Tampa area and with gas prices they way that they are, I can't afford to go to those jobs that are now 2 hours away. So I had to go on unemployment to try and survive. During that time I had to attend the standard workshop offered that tries to get you a job and education "if you qualify". As I have said in posts past, I have had a distant interest in trucking but never the funding so I never really gave it a fair shot as an option. At the workshop I was asked if there were any other fields of work I was interested in. I said, "Yeah, trucking." That's when they dropped the bomb on me and said it was a possibility, though I had to dedicate myself to jump through the hoops in place properly to do it. Since I wasn't doing anything anyway, I said sure and played the game.
So, now, here I am. All CDL-ified and waiting. The idea that I am now so close to actually starting a job in the trucking industry is mind boggling to me. Since it has not happened yet, all this waiting really doesn't bother me as bad as it would. Yeah, there are hoops to jump through and waiting to be done. Big deal, I did that trying to get in to the trucking school in the first place. My goal is set as to what is wanted at an end result. All that really needs to be done is to just be here. That I can do easily.
So for all you new readers that come through and find my site, you can get an understanding about who I am in a general sense. Now, once the adventures begin, will you still be there. :)
I hope so.
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