Time Sensitive! Breaking The News To The Family That I'm Becoming A Truck Driver!

My family put me down at first, putting strong emphasis on me turning the truck wrong and killing people and that there wasn't any money in trucking.

Don't let them scare you out of it if they pull those cards on you. Keep firm and do what you want to do!

Sean, that remark your dad made about those people going into debt almost certainly means they tried leasing or owning trucks. They may have had bad records, went to school, and never found work in the industry which landed them in debt, also. But chances are they tried leasing or owning a truck. That is where you're going to be in much better shape because you're going to avoid that mess altogether and become a company driver. So in a way your dad is right - doing what his buddies did is a bad idea! So it makes sense that he's upset about it. He doesn't realize yet that there's a better way to approach a trucking career that can lead to having nice paychecks, driving beautiful equipment, and having a great life out there on the road. So you're going to be the one to show him how it's done!

Not to mention the fact that trucking has been considered a "bottom of the barrel" career for about four decades in our society. I've mentioned to others before that the first person I told was my ma who wanted to jump straight into her grave. The second person was my neighbor, whose wife yelled, "Hemorrhoids!!!!" from the other room before her husband could get a word in. So that was my first two reactions - one person would rather be dead, the other was certain I would wind up with health problems.

So much for people sharing the enthusiasm, right???

Nothing will make your father happier than to see you making a nice living doing something you enjoy. Right now it doesn't seem like he knows too many people who had nice careers in trucking, but he's about to! You'll just have to show him how it's done.

Thanks everyone for the additional encouragement and advice :)

I think part of the reason the interaction with my dad went so poorly might have been due to the fact that I had a really good answer/rebuttal to all of his concerns; in large part due to this site.

My dad's a proud guy, so if the laws of his universe break down from time to time and he tries to convince me that 3 - 2 = 5 then sometimes I just go along with it rather than continue a conversation. If it's just a minor difference of opinion (or facts) who cares; life's too short. Plus I'm wrong all the time and don't realize until later - no big deal. The point is that I maybe I came off as an argumentative know it all for returning his fire.

The more answers I had the more frustrated he got. And it's like Brett just said in the last reply "doesn't seem like he knows too many people who had nice careers in trucking, but he's about too!". Thank you Brett, my sentiments exactly! None of those people are me! And those people probably did try to go the leasing route, failed for whatever reason and wound up in debt; I don't know.

I've calmed down a lot since I started this thread so I feel better, thanks again everyone!

I didn't expect to have to get off topic here, but since I've gotten so many responses to this thread... I have to ask if anyone feels like my goal of getting on the bus to make it to the Dec 1st class with Prime is unrealistic? I spent 8 hours last night alone just reading " The Adventures of Daniel B." because honestly I just couldn't put it down. Finally at 4:45 a.m. I forced myself to try to go to sleep. I'm just that excited. Wish I would have thought of truck driving years ago like Daniel and Brett (and I'm sure many others), but I just started considering this 1 month ago. Dec 1st is only a couple weeks away and I don't want to push back the date, but I haven't even started studying for the CDL permit test or looked at the The High Road Training Program like I want to (and have been advised to do). There's so much to read and I keep finding stuff that I haven't thought of yet and really would like to know so I'm thouroghly prepared before I start class. For instance I read last night in Daniels Adventures that at least one person on TT spent a year researching before committing to a program! Makes the time I've spent seem like nothing.

This probably should be it's own thread, but what do you all think?

Feel like I'm cutting this short but I gotta run. Typing this one my phone is getting on my nerves and if I need to start a new thread I don't want to keep rambling.