Saturday, November 28, 2009

Setting down roots is boring

While driving through different states and passing through a multitude of municipalities, I've discovered they all have something that defines them in their own way.
Whether it would be food, people, landscape or the weather quality, passing through these areas weeks at a time gave it a sense of renewed vigor.

Take a small town in Kansas for example;
I stop there to fulfill the 10 hour break requirement governed by the FMCSA guidelines.
While here I perform a combination of doing various activities in the confines of my truck sleeper and then walking all around the town to get some fresh air and muscle stretching in.
After being stuck in a noticeably mundane town for an entire, 24 hour period, I now want to get out of there due to having absorbed it.
As soon as I'm able to fire up the truck and go, I am now well aware that I will be relieved for a little while that I got away from that town.
However, as the weeks and months tick by before ever having to be routed past there again, I begin to wonder how much or little that town has changed.
Regardless, it will feel like a new place the next time I happen to roll through there again.

After thinking of an occurrence this small, I've come to the conclusion that I will never be able to set down roots in any one place and stay committed to it.
The common wisdom for most individuals is to go to college, get a job in a certain area, and stay there for a number of years and make something of their social lives to show the world that they prosper.
I on the other hand looked at truck driving as an alternative to going down this common road.
I've thought about owning house, getting married and having kids.
But when I was placed into that arrangement for the shortest amount of time(think babysitting younger siblings) I felt like the proverbial walls were closing in around me.

So, if anyone ever asks me why I long to get back into this profession again, I tell them it has nothing to do with the money.
It's that the job itself allows me to live healthfully and positively without having to handle the excess baggage that comes with maintaining a so-called, "normal-life".

Yes, I may settle down into one particular section of any given state and may or may not hook up with a fine woman and attempt to start a family, but I'll go ahead and consider that a retirement-age task.

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