Needing cash as fast as possible so that I could return to South America, my friend suggested I buy a car and start driving uber/lyft. I found a 2010 Honda Civic with low miles, a known bulletproof car, and registered with the rideshare companies! As it turns out my town is not at all profitable to drive in due to lack of demand, so I decided to head to the big city of Atlanta 2 hours away to start working. The commute proved undoable daily so I was forced to start sleeping in the car. My dad bought me a below zero sleeping bag and I threw a duffle bag of clothes in the trunk and started grinding it out.

My first Atlanta Uber trip was trial by fire. You may not believe this, but I rolled into Atlanta, a city which I have only rarely visited, and got a ping for my first pickup. On the way to the pickup, I passed a wrecked Dodge Charger. At the pickup location there was nobody. Suddenly a group of 5 people rushed to my car and started yanking on the door handles and saying GO GO GO!! I only had 4 seats... Terrified, I did what they asked. One of the men was hurt and needed medical attention. As we passed the same wrecked car, I overheard them talking about the accident. Then it all made sense. These men were car thiefs and after a serious accident, they ordered an Uber as their getaway car. I slowly counted down the minutes until arival and kept my mouth shut. After they got out, I turned off the app and contemplated for several minutes. Was this a job I actually wanted to do? Well I didn't have much other option at the moment, so I took a deep breath and turned the app back on. Atlanta proved to be a wild place and I quickly learned where I should drive and where I shouldn't.

At first, it was difficult sleeping, working, and living in the car. But I started getting used to it. I bought a gym membership at Planet Fitness for $10 per month and started taking my showers at the gym and sleeping in the parking lot behind tinted windows.

The money started coming in, but so did the problems. People kept treating my car like a trash can, and picking up obnoxious drunks all night, night after night got old really quick. One particular memory was a non-English speaking man who passed out drunk in the back seat. I could not wake him up and was not sure what I should do. After about 10 minutes of shaking him and screaming, he confusingly woke up thinking i was the police or something and he refused to get out of the car. After a bunch of "soy uber, soy uber, esta es tu casa", he finally laughed and got out. Totally worth the $1 tip!

Another memorable moment was when a group of rowdy drunken frat boys begged their friend to hold his vomit in just a little bit longer. He didn't make it.... Uber paid me $80 dollars extra to clean up his voimit which he sprayed all over the passenger door and window as he tried open it.

My biggest score ever was driving on St. Patricks day in Savannah Georgia. I was able to earn $400 pulling an all nighter. What I saw there was insane. More passed out back seat passengers, literally people passed out drunk in the street. I saw a pedestrian get hit by a car and a sobbing woman I took to the airport after being dumped by her long time rich boyfriend. It was chaos. But the money made it worth it. Whatever I had to do to reach my goals.

Oh how I love late night Waffle House suppers! 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤

After 1000 trips, I had tons of Uber stories both good and bad. The job wasn't as terrible as was the lifestyle. After living in a car for over 2 months, I had begun experiencing physical and mental fatigue. My feet and legs started staying swolen up due to the blood pooling in them from being in the sitting position 24/7. Walking around felt like I was wearing rubber shoes. While at first sleeping in the car in below freezing weather was kind of fun, like camping, it got really old really quick. The food I was eating to live was pure garbage, fast food and waffle house. Where else is there to eat at 4am? I decided to throw in the towel and cash out. In case you were wondering, I made about $9000 net in 10 weeks, or about $15 per hour after gas and other expenditures. Enough to fund my living expenses in South American for another 6 months. It was great for the time but not sustainable long term, I would have to live in the city that I work in to make it worth while but then you have to pay city rent prices making the whole idea moot. My very last Uber trip was a man I picked up at 4am outside of a closed nightclub. I was physically assaulted by this passenger and decided that was the last straw.