Author unknown. I am the American Trucker. The road I travel is asphalt and endless. It is my life and my living. A narrow ribbon of energy that is freedom. It drives me through crises, from runaway rigs to runaway inflation. It pounds me, shakes me, spits me out at the next truck stop, a sore, tired, knotted mound of muscle, aching to get back on the road quickly, loaded and running. I am an American Trucker. I am a professional, many professionals. I am a tax man, financial planner, governmental affairs expert, bookkeeper, accountant, lawyer, economist, marketeer, insurance agent, mechanic, safety expert. A little bit of a lot of people. I am a trailblazer in a vast country where every citizen makes his own way if he has the guts to gear up and get rolling. I am a man for all seasons, on two feet and 18 wheels. I am an American Trucker. My office is a small space with a large view. My climb into it is at my speed, in my way, to meet a vista that’s a little higher, a little wider, a little grander than high-rise concrete and steel. My day is a cycle. I work in the cool eerie stillness of the lonely night. Watch the day glimmer to life, streak through the midday sun, and feel the darkness slowly creep up into my rig and surround it once again. My time clock is my own. I am an American Trucker. I live my days in a different lane. I count time by mile markers. Progress by the load. Endurance in black quarts of coffee and fistfuls of cigarettes. I measure life in lines: Power lines, white lines, double lines, phone lines, fuel lines, toll lines. Dotted lines. I number myself among a rare breed of workers who wrap their hands around the wheels of a small business on six axles and move it where they want it, in the direction they think is right. I am an American Trucker. We are a community. W have drive and overdrive, big dreams, and a road that brings us closer to them mile by mile. We are citizens of a nation within a nation, possessing our own language, our own look, our own codes, our own rites of passage. We are a people who run on diesel and hard, honest work, constantly moving, wandering, and wondering what’s on the road ahead. I am an American Trucker. Yesterday is what was, a history written on so many pages of reports and forms. Today is what matters, even though its name is often forgotten. Tomorrow is uncertain. I only know I will not be where I am now if the road and the load are with me. I am an American Trucker. I depend on the road, but in return, I get independence. I grow to see many things, but with one sure vision. I am many people, but one proud individual. I am the American Trucker.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 00:22:43 +0000
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