Profile For Svetlana K.

Reading this post maybe gives me some hope, I too can not downshift to save my life. I know the pattern, i know the speed you need to be in and I stink at it, but still I'm studying my air brake test and can back up and parallel park pretty good, as my classmates tell me "Don't give up", I've wanted to cry and go home but what would I tell my kids, that mom gave up? I can't let that happen, they don't expect us to be great, and talking to people in my class who have their CDL, they weren't great at first, just try and don't give up on yourself. Those feelings have come to me plenty of times, just regroup and drive on. You will make it!

Good job! Congrats, seems like the way you describe your school, you do so much more than us. I can upshift with no real problems but downshifting is hard for me. Take care and drive safe.

They would laugh at some people in my class too, including me, I hate double clutching. and I'm not good at it. Oh well.

Well, the light bulb went on in my head about shifting, after 2 days of pulling a 53ft trailer around the course, I am finally doing alot better. I became road worthy today and we will be hitting the road tomorrow. It's pretty fun so if I can do this, anyone can do it. School is very fast paced, alot of info in a very short time. We have a class that almost everyone gets along, we keep each other laughing and the trainers are great. So glad I chose this career path.

Guess I will see you here in about a week. Good luck!

Good Luck! It's an exciting experience.

Got my confidence up when a trainer was with me, she was very calm, it helped alot. Today we only had 4 hrs of class on map reading and trip planning, I love maps, always looked at them as a kid so it was no problem and it helped being in the military. Sunday is our day off, so I'll get some studying in. Took a nap and when I woke up another light bulb went off in my head. I think my brain was just too tired. Don't think I mentioned it but I got all my written test out of the way last Wednesday. Took the last 3 and passed them all on the first try despite going to 5 different computers because they wouldn't load or my name was wrong. Very frustrating but I had better things to worry about. We still have people in our class that still need to go to DPS because their computers did the same thing to them. Have to get use to the frozen dinners and the gut truck, not a junk food person. Oh well, I still think it was all worth it, wouldn't change it for the world, plus I think the trucks are pretty sharp looking, I love black trucks.

Thanks Old School, I have to put it in my head they don't want it perfect, I got to remember that. I love driving that truck, there was a point that I was going around that course with few problems and it just felt so right, I'm too hard on myself. I will try to remember that for this coming week. Thanks to all of ya'll for the support.

I'm in my first week, yes, we are having problems with shifting too, we're new to these. Hopefully your trainer can take you aside for a few minutes and let you practice shifting with the truck off, they said do the Adams family song thing, I hate that show so it won't work for me. Speak up, tell them you are having problems. It will click, I did so much better after a trainer came into the truck with me, I wasn't perfect but you will get it. I had a easier time straight backing with a trailer, and I never even back my pickup up. Keep on trucking! You've come this far!

Today was a bunch of ups and downs, we did parallel parking and straight line backing, did ok, except for the last time when I off tracked way to much and had to get that trailer straight, I was really proud of myself, then came shifting and double clutching, since I've never shifted anything in my life I stunk, had a trainer come with me and it made it worse, Geez! there are times I just say the heck with it and want to go home, a different trainer came in and it just clicked, I was a lot smoother with clutching and shifting and braking, at one point my trainer told me "she knows how to drive, she's a natural", that was boost of confidence, I talked to the other guys and gals in my class and we are pretty much the same, we are not perfect. It is getting a lot better though.