Fear & Challenge
I’ve always been successful in my career paths, but I’ve never really been able to hang on to love. I started my transportation career in the 90’s and launched my trucking company in 1999. But there is a big back story on what got me there. I grew up on a small rural farm in Texas County, Missouri the oldest of seven children. Being the oldest my parents relied on me to help with chores on the farm and supervising the younger siblings. I hated being inside so most of my time was spent with my father, Hutch, who was an incredible man. I used to think he never slept, up at four or five a.m. off to work as a Maintenance Engineer at the Lee Company and then home to farm and a side gig of overhauling or body repair on vehicles, it seemed I was always under foot. He taught me everything a man needed to know about making money and fixing things, but I was a girl. He taught me how to use a drill press, welder, lathe, table saw, overhauling engines and transmissions, the list goes on and on. I lost him in 2010 and it probably was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with, but his voice is in my heart and soul every time I create a piece of furniture. He loved challenges! Fixing things was just like a game to him to figuring out how to make it or even fixing was very gratifying to him and I only came to realize a couple months ago he had planted that seed of loving the challenge in me.
When I started my trucking company in the early 2000’s, at that time there were less than 0.7% female based, I was truly standing in the middle of a man’s world. I had my dad through about half of those twenty years to lean on to help me problem solve maintenance issues with trucks, and I can tell you he was the proudest daddy on the planet he bragged about me to everyone. When he passed, I thought I would die, there was no way for survival with losing my best friend. I felt so uncertain on being able to continue but there was his voice every time helping me through whatever situation arose. Every piece I create is a new challenge and there is so much satisfaction in finding the solution when it turns out to be a job well done and I can hear him saying good job honey.
Three years ago, I closed the doors to my trucking company to pursue new adventures, a wrong turn left and then a right turn right put me here, at The Painted Pinto January 1, 2019. But the two months leading up to the launch of The Painted Pinto was the second hardest time I’ve ever experienced. I will not go into detail only to tell you that it left me alone, totally alone with no one but God. I was unsure of a direction and turned every care and concern over to him which was very hard for me to trust because I have a tendency to be a control freak but I prayed and prayed some more. Christmas Eve 2019 I spent that day, probably the best Christmas Eve I’ve ever experienced photographing about sixty white swans in a corn field. They were laying over during a migration for a few days just north of my home. I sat there for four hours in the cold hiding in a hedge row photographing and I felt so privileged to spend time with these majestic creatures that were a mere twenty yards from me. That night I went to Christmas service at my church and that day I gave up fear. Fear has ruled my life since I was fifteen, fear of failure, fear I was never good enough, fear of just being me and loving myself. That day changed my life forever!
The last two years have been miraculous to say the least, I have focused solely on myself which I needed to do and The Painted Pinto. I am saying this without fear of boasting but there hasn’t been a hiccup that I can recall. I know with the new strength I have that I am ready for 2022 to bring what it may. I pray its inspiration and a thriving TPP community. I can’t wait to share my journey with you and may our paths align.
Jackie Strydom
Creative Visionary – The Painted Pinto
