(no subject)
Though I've been more dedicated this go-'round, I am, once again, getting really fed up with college. I still kind of don't know what I'm doing there, or if a degree will even end up being worthwhile. I still feel kind of under-stimulated. I still get major anxiety and stress over writing papers. Between moving, exhaustion, and sickness, I've missed a bunch of class this semester and I'm thinking of just withdrawing from the semester and taking the spring off. Or maybe an indefinite period of time.
Recently, I got really really jazzed about the possibility of being a long-haul truck driver. I've always fantasized about this sort of job but felt it was impossible: between shortness and disability, getting up into the cab would prove difficult for me. And I was under the misconception that truck driving ALWAYS necessarily involved loading and unloading your own freight. I've since learned that this is not the case, and in fact, most truck drivers don't lug their own cargo!
I've also been exposed to the possibility of being a disabled truck driver. I went to a public forum for voc rehab clients a few months ago and there was a man there who was a wheelchair user who used voc rehab services to help him get a wheelchair lift installed in his truck. Unfortunately, the story didn't have a happy ending (namely, the company they hired to install the lift had never done it before and had no idea how to do the job competently), and he had come to the public forum to complain about the VR services, as had many other folks. Heh.
But I had never considered that as a possibility, even, which surprises me somewhat because I've seen lifts installed in other large vehicles. So it planted a seed.
I love driving, and I love doing it for long periods of time. I'm always annoyed when I just have a short errand to run, and will often take off on spontaneous joyrides for an hour or more because I don't want to just drive for 5-10 minutes a day. I also like to just sit in my car for awhile when I get home from somewhere, because I'm not ready to get out of it yet. (Drives Matt crazy. Hehe.)
With a few reservations and worries, I think truck driving would be an ideal job for me. Lots of time driving, alone, camping out in a vehicle, getting to see lots of the country... all seriously appealing to me.
But SO. FUCKING. OFTEN. when dealing with voc rehab, they don't really help as much as you'd think maybe they should, especially when it comes to people like me who are intelligent and motivated and have passions, but have physical limitations that may need to be creatively circumnavigated. When dealing with them since moving to Maine, I felt "tracked" into an associate's degree for human services. At the time I was sort of interested in teaching or somehow otherwise working for children, and my counselor came up with all types of reasons why this was not feasible, rather than trying to brainstorm ways to make the career I was interested in work for me. It didn't feel client-centered, really; mostly money-centered. I suppose that's kind of par for the course in this economy, but it still doesn't make it any less discouraging.
I really want to fucking drive a truck. Or drive something, anyway. And I don't want it to be dismissed immediately as a matter of course because I have a disability. I wanna, like, blaze a trail for others who might want to drive for a living but feel like it's impossible because they have some kind of physical impairment that impacts their getting into the vehicle, but not their ability to drive. I want to change the fuck out of shit. ;)
I just wonder if I have the temerity to do it. I'm so easily discouraged sometimes. Urgh.
(Also posted at http://daughtercell.dreamwidth.org/350752.html. There are
comments there.)
Recently, I got really really jazzed about the possibility of being a long-haul truck driver. I've always fantasized about this sort of job but felt it was impossible: between shortness and disability, getting up into the cab would prove difficult for me. And I was under the misconception that truck driving ALWAYS necessarily involved loading and unloading your own freight. I've since learned that this is not the case, and in fact, most truck drivers don't lug their own cargo!
I've also been exposed to the possibility of being a disabled truck driver. I went to a public forum for voc rehab clients a few months ago and there was a man there who was a wheelchair user who used voc rehab services to help him get a wheelchair lift installed in his truck. Unfortunately, the story didn't have a happy ending (namely, the company they hired to install the lift had never done it before and had no idea how to do the job competently), and he had come to the public forum to complain about the VR services, as had many other folks. Heh.
But I had never considered that as a possibility, even, which surprises me somewhat because I've seen lifts installed in other large vehicles. So it planted a seed.
I love driving, and I love doing it for long periods of time. I'm always annoyed when I just have a short errand to run, and will often take off on spontaneous joyrides for an hour or more because I don't want to just drive for 5-10 minutes a day. I also like to just sit in my car for awhile when I get home from somewhere, because I'm not ready to get out of it yet. (Drives Matt crazy. Hehe.)
With a few reservations and worries, I think truck driving would be an ideal job for me. Lots of time driving, alone, camping out in a vehicle, getting to see lots of the country... all seriously appealing to me.
But SO. FUCKING. OFTEN. when dealing with voc rehab, they don't really help as much as you'd think maybe they should, especially when it comes to people like me who are intelligent and motivated and have passions, but have physical limitations that may need to be creatively circumnavigated. When dealing with them since moving to Maine, I felt "tracked" into an associate's degree for human services. At the time I was sort of interested in teaching or somehow otherwise working for children, and my counselor came up with all types of reasons why this was not feasible, rather than trying to brainstorm ways to make the career I was interested in work for me. It didn't feel client-centered, really; mostly money-centered. I suppose that's kind of par for the course in this economy, but it still doesn't make it any less discouraging.
I really want to fucking drive a truck. Or drive something, anyway. And I don't want it to be dismissed immediately as a matter of course because I have a disability. I wanna, like, blaze a trail for others who might want to drive for a living but feel like it's impossible because they have some kind of physical impairment that impacts their getting into the vehicle, but not their ability to drive. I want to change the fuck out of shit. ;)
I just wonder if I have the temerity to do it. I'm so easily discouraged sometimes. Urgh.
(Also posted at http://daughtercell.dreamwidth.org/350752.html. There are
comments there.)