The

The I think my first

I think my first six months of trucking must have aged me by about five years, and for the first two,

I felt like I was in pure survival mode. Everything I was taught in CDL school seemed like it was

written by someone who sat behind a desk, not a wheel. And no matter how many pamphlets

you read or video seminars you watch, nothing prepares you for backing up a 53-foot trailer in a

truck-stop fuel island at 2 a.m. and with four other drivers waiting behind you. I must have

burned through a hundred gallons of gas just practicing backing up in empty lots,

ideally at night too, when nobody could see me sweat. And although I've obviously gotten better

over the years, I still get tight in the chest whenever I see a truck parking in rear on a receiver

that looks a little too tight. Needless to say, the learning curve was brutal.

And in my third week, I forgot to crank my landing gear all the way up, which cost me a damaged

trailer and an $800 deductible. And I also learned really quick that the whole 11-hour driving

limit isn't a suggestion. I remember I hit 10.59 one night and I thought that I could

push for another 45 minutes or so to get home. Maybe 20 minutes later, I literally started seeing the

reflectors on the white lines start dancing in front of me. I ended up pulling over into a Walmart

parking lot where I slept like the dead for eight hours solid.

Long haul trucking is 20% learning to drive the truck and 80% learning how to live in it.

It was a real grind, and then for around four or five months in, things started to click.

I got my sleep scheduled down with a five-hour split and a six-hour bunk nap that actually worked for me.

And then after a while, things like chaining up in the snow or dealing with four-wheelers who think the left lane is their own birthright, started to become second nature to me.

It was humbling, exhausting, but honestly kind of addicting once I realized that I was actually

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