The Announcement

4:22 AM 11/25/2007

My name is ________ (edited for Reddit identity protection!) and I leave Tuesday morning on a Greyhound bus for Memphis, Tennessee where I will begin training to become a truck driver.

I've been sitting in this chair for thirty minutes staring at the screen trying to decide how I'm going to explain this. Explain how I'm going to break the news. Well the cats out of the bag now.

Not many people know why I'm doing this. Not many people know at all that I'm even going to do it. I haven't told people for any number of reasons, but mainly because I'm fairly certain that, in the past, I have been thought of as someone who would say things but would never followthrough. Or as somebody who didn't commit. Who didn't stick with it. And maybe in the past that was true. But no more. I decided that I was going to do this over a month ago. Because of those reasons, I've told very few people. I guess this is my formal announcement. I wanted to make sure that I was well upon my way before I let people know what I was doing.

More than that though, I'm afraid that people won't understand. I can't be sure of many things, but one thing I am certain about is that not everyone will understand why. Some people who read this will understand. Some people who read this, will judge. Some people will laugh. Some people will nod in agreement.

What it comes down to, is this: When I am old, and when I am dying; I refuse to look back on my life thinking, "It could have been so much more interesting, so much more fufilling." HAPPINESS IS NOT A MEASURE OF ONE'S LIFE VERSUS SOMEONE ELSE'S.

Anyone who knows me, knows that my life is one that I really didn't choose for myself. Bad things that I have had no control over have happened, and as a result, I haven't been afforded the same opportunities and comforts that other people have. As the metaphor goes though, it's not the hand but how you play it. My whole life I've done what I thought was the best I could, when in actuality, all I've been doing is re-acting to things. I haven't been moving past problems, I've just been sidestepping them. Adjusting. I've thought a lot about my goals and what I want to accomplish in my life. I have a lot I want to do. I've got a destination, and now I need a road.

Why drive a truck? Why become a truck driver?

Well, first off I guess an important piece of information is that I'm only going to do it for a year and a half at most, but at least a year. Why that amount of time? Because that's all the time I need to accomplish the things I've set aside to do.

Adventure. Money. Stories. To be Unorthodox. To do something nobody else is doing. To totally immerse myself in something. To see the country. To travel. To gain financial independence. To grow. To see things many won't ever get the chance to see. To go places nobody else will go. To breathe different air. To cross state lines. To prove to myself that there is more out there than Huntsville, Alabama or Auburn, Alabama. To set aside money for the future. To follow in the footsteps of my father (if only for a little while). To invest. To get a new car. To pay for college. To prove people wrong. To come out stronger.

But mainly TO TAKE A STEP TOWARDS THE REST OF MY LIFE, AND TO FORGE MY OWN PATH.

Ultimately, when I'm done I'll have accomplished many things that most nobody, if anyone, my age will have.

I've delayed writing this for as long as possible, but the time is now. In fact, I'll be keeping a blog on the road which I'll update often, but that's another entry for another time.

What you eventually must ask yourself, is how do you view life? What's the right way to look at things. What kind of lense are you looking at things through? To me, life is a story. Regardless of who you are and where you are from, you have a story to tell. I want to be able to look behind me and know that I have an incredible one to tell.

This, is one of my stories.