salam and (barely) good morning!

quick question: hands up, who wants to be a.. CEO? … awful lot of you chaps innit. okay hands up, who wants to be, and i mean this as a profession.. a lorry driver? … hmm not so much. truth be told, i wouldn’t want to be one either. i mean, what’s the glamor in that?

.

meet Euro Truck Simulator 2.

as the name implies, it’s a role-playing game where you take the part as a charismatic young lad who yearns of being at the top seat of the greatest logistics company in the world. you start off by doing odd jobs for other companies, earning probably around (at most) 2000 euros per say, 300 kilometres of delivering various goods, ranging from wood shavings to even more delicate things such as glass panels. then as you save up on the money you buy yourself a truck or two, hire people to work w/ you and try to keep a business running. simple enough?

probably not.

along the way you might encounter accidents due to driving under the influence of drowsiness, arrive late and get your paycheck discounted (you might not even get any at all), and then you noticed your lorry’s badly damaged so you go to the repair shop, only realizing at that very last moment that you don’t have any money left, so you take a loan from the bank which adds up to the mounting debt you already have.

but that’s just a game to you.

to me, this isn’t just another ordinary game. it’s about stepping for a brief moment (albeit virtually) in the shoes of brave men and women who risked their lives doing an honest job that no one cares about just so their family can have a decent meal for dinner. it’s about realizing that there are actual human beings, out there, driving hundreds of miles just so YOU can go and buy potatoes at the local shops. it’s about.. being grateful. grateful for the food on your table, clothes on your back, cars to carry your kids to school. being grateful that because of them, you can lead a better life.

after all, someone’s gotta do it, right?

lorry drivers, i salute you. thank you for all that you’ve had done.

ws