You're listening to Rough Translation from NPR.

It was the fall of 2010 when Jess Gramm decided to up-enter life.

She left her abusive partner, took her 10-year-old daughter,

and hit the road in her new tractor trailer.

I'm gonna go somewhere else and I'm gonna reinvent myself

and I'm gonna start over.

And I'm gonna make my life what I'm gonna make it.

It was only nine weeks earlier that Jess had signed up

for trucking school.

Trucking is one of those industries that, in very little time,

you can actually change your station in life.

In my mind, maybe it's a movie version, but you're pulling up in your truck.

You're jumping out and you're literally just bundling her up

with some clothes and piling her in the truck.

It probably wasn't like that, but...

No, that was exactly what it was.

I came in, packed her up, and went to the school

and told her that she is no longer enrolled

and that she will be home schooling and we hit the road.

The living space was eight feet by eight feet, two bunk beds.

I have a picture and she's got all of her stuff

and her little cubbies and sitting on her bed, smiling.

...