From truck driver to nurse: A real man's journey

Have you ever taken stock of your life and decided that you're on the wrong path from a work perspective? One of my close friends did just that about 24 months ago and is just about to embark on his new career. He's pretty excited about it too, and for me I have had the pleasure of watching this guy transform, reinvent himself as such. It's been a difficult road for him from a study, financial and workload perspective and also emotionally as the original decision to make such a dramatic change was prompted by a bad road accident.

My friend used to drive a truck very similar to the one you see pictured here. He bought it with the banks money and worked incredibly hard to make repayments on the loan of just over $450,000. He hauled freight across the country, generally East-West (meaning Sydney-Melbourne-Adelaide-Perth) and worked long hours behind the wheel away from his young girlfriend and their baby. During trips he'd spend hours on the phone looking for new loads and setting up back-loads to ensure the truck carried a load at all times and the bills got paid. The wheels had to keep rolling because when they stopped it meant no money. He pretty-much never stopped and when he did he was impossible to be with due to the financial stress he felt buried under. We'd speak occasionally on the phone during runs and on one occasion I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to run to Melbourne and back with him which was a great experience.

It all came to a crashing halt, literally, about four years ago whilst he was in the middle of an Adelaide-Perth-Adelaide run. The trip is a 2690 kilometre drive across the Nullabor which is very flat and virtually treeless stretch of Australia that sits between the two cities. My friend had pulled off the road to secure his load of gas pipes as one of the chains had worked lose. He had just completed the work and had re-entered his cab to get back under way when his truck was struck from behind by another prime mover. The driver of that vehicle had fallen asleep at the wheel and simply drove off the road. As you can imagine the two trucks were pretty much written off and both drivers were seriously injured, my mate with terrible spinal and neck injuries, cuts and several broken bones and the other driver with multiple breaks, deep lacerations, a crushed lung and other injuries. He ended up through the windscreen and landed on the pipes on my mates trailer.

Two years later my friend was given medical clearance to drive again however he decided that he would not go back to it. Insurance had paid out on the destroyed prime mover, trailer and load and fortunately he had the correct personal insurance for his medical expenses and income however he had lost the spark for driving and after two years home with his wife (he and his girlfriend married a year after the accident) was reluctant to work away again. After two years of recovery and rehabilitation my friend decided he wanted to be a nurse.

It was a huge leap; Burly truck driver to nurse, and at first we (his mates) thought he was joking but it actually made a lot of sense. He had spent two years being cared for in several medical facilities and had nothing but amazing things to say about the medical staff. He feels he owes them his life and he wanted to dedicate himself to helping others also. What a bloody champion! It took him almost six months of courses to bring himself to the minimum entrance requirement then about eighteen months of study to gain his Diploma in Nursing.

My mate has just received his placing, a country hospital, and is relocating his family to the small town about 200km from Adelaide. I am so proud of him and literally in awe of the way this guy has applied himself to gain his Diploma and start a new life. He worked harder than everyone else, he had to just to keep up! He worked a part time job to help supplement his wife's income to help keep them afloat financially and simply attacked his goal with passion, dedication and grit.

We are bombarded with images of role models by the media, people that are held up on a pedestal as someone we should admire; People like Hollywood celebrities, sports stars and such. Our social security and welfare systems are overloaded with people holding their hand out for something for nothing and we allow ourselves to be distracted by pointless, insignificant things that have no true meaning and then there are people like my buddy; True titans! Hard working, responsible, humble people that work for what they have, strive to succeed and stay grounded when success comes. I am proud of my mate and look forward to helping him move his family away in a couple of weeks to begin a fresh new life.

I work hard to ensure my mindset, attitude if you will, is positive and to surround myself with like-minded people who share my ethos. My ex-trucker-nurse mate is one such individual and whilst I hope I never run into him in the course of his job as a nurse I look forward to spending time with him, hanging out and basking in his greatness. For me he's a true role model!

Oh, we (his cruel mates) have come up with just about every male nurse joke we could possibly think of and have picked on him relentlessly since he first announced his intentions to become a nurse. I guess you could say we bullied him. A lot. Relentlessly. Brutally. It's what we do. We love him though, and wish him all the best. He's actually the hero of the group and we all look up to him.

[- Design and create your ideal life, don’t live it by default -]

Image taken by me near Port Pirie, South Australia