This is to all of you who have had balls enough to go for it, try and to make a name for yourself.
To the best of my knowledge, this is the only crack at life that we get. After this there may be something different or there may not. I have no idea, and have no wish to find out for a very long time.
Life’s what you make it. Everyone says so, so it must be true.
I went Owner Driver several years ago. I worked ridiculous hours, spent my free time involved in some aspect of the business and worried myself silly most of the time. I took all the jobs that the firm I subbed to couldn’t cover with their own drivers because of laws and similar. I worked awfully damned hard, same as most do.
I loved it, every minute of it. I took jobs to new places all very often. Every single day held something different, whether it be seeing the Alps for the first time or changing injector pipes on the side of the road in the pouring rain.
Every day was different in some way, and I didn’t have the luxury of the phone being my toolbox. I didn’t always have the benefit of being the thousandth truck to go somewhere- I was often the first. When something went wrong, I fixed it. I became a wholly independant person with a will to carry on which probably would put many to shame.
What I am saying is this. Every day was made up of new experiences. Some big- some not. They were all like mini-adventures, and that is what memories come from.
When I am old and greyer, I will be able to look back on all the times I had and remember things. Standing in a WW1 frontline cemetary and signing the book, waking up in the foothills of the Alps for the first time and seeing the view, driving through a blizzard so extreme that stopping was not an option because you couldn’t see a place to stop, seeing my first wolf or bear, crawling under a truck cab in freezing rain to cobble a repair to a cracked line.
All of these things colour the way I see the world. They make me proud of all I have done. Owner Drivers see it differently because the reason they are there, in that situation, is that they have gone out of their way to do it.
Drivers lives are filled with these Micro-adventures. Owner Drivers ones are slightly more colourful.
A man I have known since he was a small child works for a milk company. He used to do long distance but went on the milk because it affected his drinking time at the club. He’s 35 now. His life revolves around going to work, going to the club and going home.
I can’t imagine anything worse. When he gets older, his memories will consist of such boredom that I wouldn’t want to carry on.
NSH. I know what you are talking about in everything, but remember all the micro adventures you had. It makes you a success regardless of any outcome.
And before my acerbic little friend chips in, there is a vast difference between people like NSH and yourself. He has guts enough to do it for real.
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