I'm Back!

1:26 AM 3/14/2008
It feels like it's been forever since I updated, and the reason being is probably because it has been forever. Before I cover the present, let me cover the past first.

On March 4th, I finally completed my road training. I spent a total of 45 days on the road. Without doubt or uncertainty I can say that it was one of the most difficult things I've ever done in my entire life. Spending six weeks on the road with a total stranger who you have nothing in common with, and are forced to be taught by-- is something nobody is used to. Nor should they be.

Before I left for training, I made a surprise visit to Auburn to visit all of my friends and to surplus my interactions with people I cared about because I knew that I'd be hard pressed for things like that once I got on the road.

The day came for me to leave to Memphis once again. on a Greyhound bus once again. I hated it, once again.

I arrived in Memphis tired, but ready to take care of business. I had little trouble switching to business mode once i left Auburn. I was worried that I'd be left feeling empty and alone once I departed but the transition was very cut and dry, which was a relief.

I had two different trainers during the course of my time on the road. The first man was a fourty-five year old black man named Antonio that I had nothing in common with, and very much disliked. But, I knew that training was going to be a lot like boot camp and comfort really wasn't going to be in the cards for me. My very first trip was from Memphis, TN to Louisville Kentucky. About twenty minutes into the drive, Antonio told me he was going to go to sleep, which is totally against the rules for training. The mentor isn't supposed to sleep at all during the first week of training. If they do, it's something they could get fired for, without question. At the time I knew it was a little fishy, but I just kind of dealt with it.

For the two weeks I drove with Antonio, I was driven hard. Most of the time I was tired, and most of the time I smelled bad. It's funny in a way going from showering twice a day to maybe once every two or three. It became clear to me that Antonio was more focused on making money than he was with providing me with safe and adequete training. Mentors not only get paid for the miles that they drive, but also for the mileage of the student (who is on salary during training) So Antonio pressed for a ton of miles that at the time I wasn't totally prepared to handle. But, I did it and I kept quiet for two weeks untill one night he got a DOT (department of transportation) ticket at a scale house on the way back to Memphis. It turns out he didn't have a valid medical card (which any driver with a CDL is required to have on his person, at all times) He tried to argue with the state trooper who was issuing the ticket, and was nearly taken to jail as a result. All of this while I looked on thinking to myself that I needed to a new trainer. Once I got back to Memphis, I took a few days to think about it while he was on home time and decided to go ahead and make the move.

My next trainer was a 38 year old black man named Jacques Pierre. He was short, bald, and I had nothing in common with this man as well. Pierre was a helicopter pilot in the navy at one point, then when he retired from there he got a job as an FBI field agent. Both of his parents fell ill with cancer though, and so he gave up the best job of his life to take care of the people that birthed him. Very admirable.

My time with Pierre was long and stressful. As a person he's alright, but as a teacher he was pretty terrible. But I did my best to hold my tongue and to absorb everything he taught me and somehow I made ith through the six weeks. At times, it was near grueling. But the part that was tough wasn't being on the road, it was being on the road in close proximity with essentially a stranger for six weeks straight. I think it would push anyone's patience to the limits.

Not once during those six weeks did it ever feel like work. Not one time.

Somehow most of my time on the road wasn't lonely. Maybe it was because I was focusing on learning something totally new or maybe it was because leaving everything you know behind has some sort of strange appeal to it. All of my dissappeared more and more with each passing line painted on the road.

During my six weeks of road training I travelled to 24 states, saw some of the most beautiful city skylines at night, tromped around in close to two feet of snow, saw a lunar eclipse, grew a beard, missed home, missed people, thought of ex girlfriends, kicked myself for thinking of ex girlfriends, grew closer to many people who I haven't been close to in a while, and grew as a person in ways I never knew that I could.

Making this decision is easily one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.
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If this post seems rushed and uninspired, it's mainly because it is. I apologize. I'm in a situation here where I have so much to talk about but little time to type it all out. In order to not fall behind I've sacrificed meaningful contenta bit here. Expect more updates soon, and current ones at that. I'm going to come back to stories from training though, so more things will be addressed.