Hi Beef,
In a couple days I will be going to orientation for my trucking school. Like you I have a college degree. BUT?since I have an English degree and my background is in journalism, and the local dailies won't hire me, I'm screwed. Jobs around here pay $8-10 an hour. I can't afford to move somewhere where I might make a living with my writing. Journalism is a crowded field anyway. However, even the ad agencies/
PR firms don't want me. The thought of making $600-$800 a week makes me giddy. I've worked 12 hours a day four days a week for maybe $350 a week, if I was lucky. If I'm going to work 12-14 hours a day, fine, but I want better money to show for it.
I am 39 and single; no kids. I figure now is the time to do trucking. If I don't like it, no big deal. But I hope I like it enough to stick with it for several years. If nothing else, I will have some bills paid off and some money set aside. My ultimate goal is to move to Toronto. I'm hoping a trucking salary will enable me to buy a small house in the suburbs, if not the city itself. I also hope that maybe I can use my writing skills for a more 9 to 5 type job in the city. I live in a part of the country where the cost of living is incredibly cheap. I own half a house with my brother, so I don't have rent or mortgage. Even if I buy him out, I'm looking at payments of around $250-$300 a month, so that's not bad at all. Mainly, it's my bills that I want to take care of. After that, I'd be able to survive here on a "podunk" job. But I don't like it here, and I'm hoping to relocate to a city that I'm actually proud to live in.
To be honest, college degrees don't mean squat amymore, unless you are pre-med, accounting, veterinarian, pre-law, or nursing. I was working the same crap jobs AFTER I had my college degree as I did before I had my college degree. If I'd moved out of town right after I graduated college, I might have found work in the "big city," but I didn't have $15K socked away to live on and snag a studio apartment in Chicago or New York before finding a job. I don't know how people just graduate and move to NYC like it's nothing at all.
I think Generation X may be the first generation to prove that a bachelor's degree won't earn you any more money than someone with "just" a high school diploma. I've yet to see any decent jobs/money come my way, and I've been out of college for 14 years now. This has been a sore spot with me for years. As a result, I've felt like a failure. I never moved out of the house, because I never had a job that paid enough to cover rent AND my bills/student loans.
So Beef, I would give it a shot. It's nice that you are close to your parents, even though they don't want you to do it. I think my mother would die if she knew I wanted to go into trucking. Occasionally I have dreams she's still alive, and in my dreams I realize, "I can't go into trucking, she's still alive." Sometimes I think I'm letting my parents down by going into trucking, but I worked three jobs from mid-January to mid-April, and was exhausted and depressed, and I sure as heck wasn't making $600-$800 a week!!! Bottom line, is that I have to survive. If I can't make a decent living doing what I love (writing/photography) I need to learn something PRACTICAL. Since I prefer being alone, love to drive, like traveling, am hardly ever bored and feel like a very responsible, safety-conscious person, I am hoping I can live with trucking long enough to feel like I'm financially secure. I have some goals in mind, and trucking will help towards making them happen.
And STOP obsessing about the physical!!! My goodness, if you were a personal trainer, you've GOT to be in better shape than I am (I'm around 30-40 pounds overweight) and I passed the physical with no problem! My trucking school paid for it and sent me to a doctor in a clinic near the school, so it wasn't my own family doctor who did it.
Lots of good luck with your decision! Seriously, now is the time to do it. I absolutely do not know how married truckers with or without children manage to keep their families intact. I don't want a husband OR children, and my friends have tight/varied schedules, so it's not like I see them on a regular basis anyway. Like I said, I prefer being alone. Time will tell with how well I deal with it, but I plan to write about my experience and take my cameras. I can usually amuse myself, so I don't think that will be a problem. I'm a little worried about being a woman by myself, but I will just have to make sure of my surroundings and leave if I feel threatened. I plan to take my dog with me once I get through training and I'm assigned a truck.
Hope you're still awake! I'm a writer, and I tend to go on and on, like the Energizer Bunny...
