Life changes

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GeddyWrox
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Re: Life changes

Post by GeddyWrox »

Congrats homie!!!

tlombard
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Re: Life changes

Post by tlombard »

I really just don't even know what to do with myself these next few days. For tonight I'm just relaxing and not worrying about a thing. Tomorrow I'll pack up and make the drive back to St. Louis and just see what happens from there until Friday afternoon when I need to catch my ride to Dallas.

I'm still just kind of in disbelief that it all went so well today and that's it. No more school. I've got my CDL. It was weeks of work and studying and practicing along with the ups and downs through it all and then in a matter of less than two hours... it's done. That's it. You don't even have a date to look forward for and prepare for until two days before your test. Tuesday and Wednesday I was just minding my business putting my work in and then Wednesday afternoon I was told that I was testing on Friday. Friday morning was a disaster but then Friday afternoon I was told that I was being put right back out there in the next slot on Tuesday since they don't test on Monday so you can regain a little of what you lost over the weekend while we're still learning.

From Friday until Tuesday I just kept going through the scenario where I mess up Tuesday, get sent home and then I've got no job or apartment or anything and all that stress just kept piling up no matter how hard I tried to stay positive. And it was weird because I knew I could easily pass the tests but when something that even your instructors didn't know about causes you to fail, it messes with your mind because you're worried about something else crazy coming up even though you know exactly what you're doing so you start to feel like you aren't actually even in control of whether you pass or fail anymore which means you're not even in control of your future.

Today there was the nervousness before and during the test, the few minutes waiting to be told if I passed each step so I could move forward to the next one piled onto all of that... and then in about two seconds all that just lifts away when you finally find out that you passed. I'm normally a pretty even person. I don't get too up and I don't get too down. It takes a lot to bother me. But I still don't know how to process the emotions and everything that has happened since Friday morning when I left the school to drive to the test site for the first time. If I had something that I absolutely had to do tonight, I don't know that I could do it. So I'll just reflect on it all the rest of the night and start the next chapter of my life tomorrow excited and ready to go now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is getting so close. I'm not used to this emotional roller coaster but if I have to be on this ride, I couldn't have asked for a better ending to this section.

And as far as Friday being something that wasn't actually my fault, the other examiner stopped by the school this afternoon and had a conversation with a couple of the instructors and he flat out said that he has no idea where the rule/whatever that failed me came from because that was the first time he'd ever heard of it and that I should have passed on Friday but since I got it done today, they will just verify if it was legitimate or not for the future students and the head instructor at the school announced after lunch that they are changing their method for teaching the air brake test regardless so that it never happens to anybody again. So in the end, I got it done without any actual harm to me and no students in the future will ever have to go through that situation of failing for something that nobody who taught you knew was a thing or whether that thing is actually even a thing at all. That stuff really messes with your head. I think they should name their new order of teaching the air brake test the Lombard method in honor of me taking one for the team and putting my future at risk. LOL.

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Radbird
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Re: Life changes

Post by Radbird »

Heartiest congrats - glad you brought GRB along for the ride! Hope all goes well in your career and that next month you get to Maine in time to see some nice fall colors!!

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AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Life changes

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

It's been a pleasure reading your updates and your passion is more than obvious. Good luck with the next chapter and a big congratulations to you! Glad to see the hardwork pay off!!

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Fat_Bulldog
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Re: Life changes

Post by Fat_Bulldog »

Congrats!

Arthur Dent
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Re: Life changes

Post by Arthur Dent »

Hell yeah, dude! With the amount of dedication you were clearly putting into this thing, you were always going to nail it, imo. They just hit you with some BS.

Training yourself up to master a new skill feels great, and you are right to be proud of it. Well done.

tlombard
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Re: Life changes

Post by tlombard »

I'm packing up now so I can head back to St. Louis for the next couple of days and leave Friday for Dallas. I didn't have the money to buy an airline ticket so the company bought me a ride on the Greyhound. That will be about an 18 hour trip but hopefully I can sleep through most of it since it will be over night. I should get into Dallas about noon on Saturday and then I'll start my orientation on Sunday. At least once I'm down there everything is paid for. Breakfast is covered at the hotel and then lunch and dinner will be brought in during the orientation which will be four days long with training on the systems in the trucks, the refrigeration units, APU's, company policies, they will issue me a fuel card and all that stuff as well as them getting us in the trucks to run through basic maneuvers in the yard to get used to their equipment and make sure we are not complete screw ups. And then it is right on the road! I'm just supposed to take 7-10 days worth of clothing and bedding for the bunk in the sleeper with me. Of course I'm bringing my laptop. I can't do without that!

There will be more updates to come. I will start another thread and hopefully remember how to post pictures so I can get some nice shots of all the places I'll be. I was thinking about starting a blog last night too. I am going to try and work on getting that set up before I get to Dallas through one of the free services. That way friends and family can keep track of me too. I figure that's the easiest way of keeping in touch with any updates because my friends and family want to know how things are going and calling or texting each of them all the time is more than I want to do especially since my schedule will be pretty erratic with when I'm driving and such.

Now it's time to pretty much just throw all my stuff into bags, load it into my car and make the drive home. It isn't going to be a pretty packing job but whatever. I am just ready to get out of here and see some friends and family before I am gone for months. I'll definitely have a week off after I finish the 4-6 weeks with my trainer but I don't know if I'll drive all the way back to St. Louis from Dallas. It's a 10+ hour drive so I may but that's a long time to be driving to have a few days at home and then have to turn around and drive it right back. Plus I won't have my personal vehicle down there so I'd be driving back in my truck. Although by then maybe I'll be at a point where I'm willing and able to spend $400 on a round trip ticket to fly and I can leave the truck in Dallas for the week. If I have to pay my own gas to drive that thing back and forth then I'm DEFINITELY not driving the truck home. Friends and family can look at pictures if they're really interested.

Let the packing (stuffing of clothes into whatever I can find handy) begin!

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cardinalkarp
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Re: Life changes

Post by cardinalkarp »

Now don’t go f’ing cutting me off to sneak into the fast lane because some other truck is slow as [expletive].

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st.lewis11
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Re: Life changes

Post by st.lewis11 »

Very happy for you, tlombard!

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CardsofSTL
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Re: Life changes

Post by CardsofSTL »

Congratulations @tlombard

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