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This Week We Feature Young Professional Eglantine E. Lowry-Rawlins
Swiss writer Henri Frederic Amiel once wrote that passion is the trigger of success and without it man is a mere latent force and possibility – these words are appropriate in describing the success behind our featured Young Professional Eglantine E. Lowry-Rawlins or Tina as she is fondly called.
This Virgin Islander has ventured into what may be regarded as a man’s world and has been able to survive and earn her respect purely out of her passion to do what she always wanted to do since she was a child - to drive trucks.
Worthy to note too is that our Young Professional is probably the only female who operates heavy duty equipment on Tortola. The mother of four is employed with Tortola Concrete Ltd of Pockwood Pond as a driver of concrete trucks. Tina has been driving concrete trucks since 2008 and said she got the passion from her father who also operated heavy duty equipment.
Having a dream is one thing but getting the opportunity to realise it is another and being a female posed many challenges for Tina to even get the chance to sit in the driver’s seat of a vehicle that is considered a man’s vehicle. “I used to work at First Bank as a receptionist but since then I was going around to different truck drivers to let them know that I wanted to drive trucks but some of the guys were saying oh you are a lady and you are going to be afraid of the height and the size and the different places you would have to go.”
Determined to not be discouraged, Tina continued to seek the opportunity until one day she approached someone from Tortola Concrete Limited and told them about her ambition and was encouraged to speak to management, who considered her. “So while I was working at First Bank I was doing this on Saturdays alone or Sundays when they had work but now I am doing it more like a full time basis because I am not working anywhere else.”
Our Young Professional said her first experiences on the job were “rough” and she had many challenges on the roadways as persons weren’t too keen on giving her the respect as a female driver on the road. “That was a big downfall but not my turn off because I wanted to show that this is what I wanted to do and they were not going to stop me.”
She even recalled one time someone called her at the bank and tried to discourage her. “The person told me that I needed to stop driving and that they don’t want any female truck drivers here. They even had it on the radio ZCCR and ZBVI commenting about it and a lot of people were not comfortable with me being a female truck driver but it is what I like. You can’t stop somebody from doing what they have a passion for.”
But apart from those challenges, operating the trucks was not difficult for Tina to learn to do although all she took to the company was her immense passion and no experience. Expressing thanks to Ashley, Norris, Valentine and Keith and all the other drivers who were supportive to her, Tina said they were tough on her but that she would have preferred it no other way because she was able to get the hands on training that she was looking forward to. “It’s like if I ever got stuck somewhere with the truck they wouldn’t come and take the truck but allowed me to manoeuvre out of the situation while they gave the instructions and that was what I loved about it.”
She says truck driving has now become simple and says that if she can do it so could other females. “I would love to see more women driving heavy equipment but I don’t want them to come out feeling that they are just truck drivers but that they have the passion because the trucks are not that easy and simple as they look. Sometimes you would have difficult times and you would have to know how to manoeuvre yourself. You can’t panic. One of the challenges is negotiating narrow turns due to the length and size of the trucks.”
Up to now she says some of the young male drivers “tend to want to test you on the road but you have to keep your head on because those trucks cannot stop that easy as the small cars. The problem is that the drivers of the smaller vehicles believe that they can outrun the trucks but they don’t realize that when the truck has concrete it cannot stop so easily. So when you trying to outrun the trucks them you can put yourself in danger. I had quite some incidents where persons tried to out run the trucks and missed being hit. And the first thing they would want to say is that it’s a female truck driver but they would have to realise that we all have a part on the road but we have to be more responsible.”
Asked what her family thinks about her driving trucks, Tina admitted that her father was not too pleased. “He told me not to, my mom told me not to but it is something that I always wanted to do but they are ok with it now since they realise that I can handle myself. My mom still doesn’t like the idea too much because of some of the places that we have to go but she is getting comfortable with it.” She says climbing hills with the trucks can be scary. “The scariest point I ever went was on top of the hill in West End.”
Now in the driver’s seat, our Young Professional wishes to steer herself in different directions that would take her uphill in life and said she wishes to become a manager or supervisor someday and desires the opportunity where she could be able to encourage other people, especially young females, to pursue their dreams and develop their talent. “I would like to be someone that people look up to in terms of someone who is determined and passionate to do what they want to do despite the circumstances. Some of the ladies feel that because they have children they can’t do a lot of things but you can’t let that stop you from doing what you want to do. You have to manoeuvre yourself.”
Tina also looks forward to going back to school, which was cut short for her when she became pregnant as a student of the then BVI High school. In fact she said she used to attend night schools but the programme was not consistent as there were many starts and stops so she pursued her High School Diploma online but was told her Diploma was not genuine when she tried to gain entry into the H. L. Lavity Stoutt Community College to do Information Technology. She intends to restart the night school programme.
Our Young Professional is also very passionate about the development of the youths and noted that some of the youths just need someone to recognize their talent and help them to develop it. She also lamented that some of the youths were falling by the wayside. “You mostly seeing some of them smoking and liming and that is not how we grew up. So it is just for someone to see them and pick them up.”
She also advised the youths to be leaders rather than followers. “Most of the kids these days are followers. I see someone doing this so I am going to do it. You have to push yourself to say that this is where I want to be in the next few years or so and this is what I have to do to achieve that. There will be times when you would second guess yourself but just satisfy yourself by saying that you can do it and anytime you see that you are in a position where you are getting a lot of negative feedback and discouragements you are close to your break so don’t stop then.”
Tina also said that society should grab the youths as soon as they complete training as then they would have the enthusiasm but if they can’t find employment their passion would wane and it would be difficult to get them to refocus. “When I wanted to do truck driving I went up to six guys and they were all not in support and it was just depressing because you don’t have anyone out there that would actually lift you and put you where you want to go. I was so glad when Tortola Concrete called me. I was working there for close to a year without pay because it was what I wanted to do. So my words of advice too are that if you really want to do something don’t look at the money now but think about what you would get in the long run.”
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