There is a reason driving schools spend 3 weeks on pretrip and backing, and only 1 week on driving. Going forward is the easiest part of this job. It's all the other bullshit that makes it tough. No amount of driving following DoT regulations or pretending to be a truck driver will prepare you for the real thing.

Most people can handle the physical aspects of this job. It's the mental aspects of the job that make it hard. Constantly being alert to the people around you who seem to want to kill themselves on your rig for 10+ hours a day can be taxing. Spending almost that entire time alone in a small box does make you feel lonely at times. Being harassed constantly by dispatch on why you haven't crossed the entire midwest in 3 hours and delivered your load already can break anyone down after a while. Going out of your way to stretch your hours and pulling questionable moves to get to that shipper on time, for them to be upset when they see you and complain that you should have been there yesterday while also taking 8 hours to load you.

No one gives a shit about you as a driver except your family and maybe a few other drivers. You provide an essential service to modern life, but you are treated as an inconvenience and looked down on pretty much all the time. All that shit really wears down on people after a while. You have to be able to let that all roll off you and be happy with most likely not enough pay for what this job asks of people. I've been driving for 3 years and I love the freedoms this jobs gives me but it has it's moments that make you question if what your doing is even worth it. The act of driving is one of the easiest parts of this job that almost anyone can learn to do. Nothing can really emulate what it's like being a driver. You really do need to do it to see if it's for you because everyone is different.