Published: June 1, 2026
Author: Eric Ellison
Tags: career change, cybersecurity, beginner, personal, routetoroot
I want to be honest with you from the jump.
I didn't come from a tech background. I don't have a Computer Science degree. I didn't start coding at 12. I wasn't the kid taking apart computers in the garage.
For nearly a decade, I ran a trucking company. Mud Mule LLC. I was the owner, the operator, the dispatcher, the accountant, and half the time, the driver. I built something from nothing with my own hands, and for a long time, that was enough.
Then it wasn't.
The Honest Truth About Why I Left
The trucking industry grinds you down in ways that are hard to explain unless you've lived it. You're always chasing the next load, the next contract, the next check. You're away from home more than you're in it. You're at the mercy of fuel prices, freight rates, broker margins, and a dozen things you can't control.
My company was struggling. I was tired — not the kind of tired that sleep fixes. The kind that comes from spending years building something that owns you more than you own it.
I needed out.
But here's the thing. Knowing you need to leave and actually leaving are two completely different things. Because the moment you start thinking about walking away, a voice in your head starts talking.
You're too old for this.
You don't have the education.
You have no experience in tech.
Who do you think you are?
I had been interested in cybersecurity and technology for almost eight years. Eight years of reading articles, watching videos, being fascinated by how systems work and how they break. Eight years of telling myself it was just a hobby. Eight years of talking myself out of pursuing the one thing that actually excited me.
I was my own worst enemy.
The Day Everything Changed
There wasn't a dramatic moment. No single event that flipped a switch.
I just got tired of being my own hater.
One day I decided — enough. I was going to be my own biggest fan instead. I was going to pursue this like I had nothing to lose, because honestly? At that point, I didn't.
I went all in.
I started studying. I built a home lab. I started doing hands-on cybersecurity exercises. I completed lab after lab — packet capture, network analysis, SIEM deployment, threat hunting, GRC compliance. Twenty-nine labs and counting, all documented, all evidence-based, all real.
I built this brand — RouteToRoot — because the name says everything about where I'm going. You follow the route until you reach root. You follow the path, however long it takes, until you get there.
What I Want You to Take From This
If you're reading this and you're in a similar place — stuck in something that's draining you, interested in cybersecurity but convinced you're too old, too inexperienced, too late — I want to tell you something.
You're not.
I'm building this in public so you can see every step. The labs. The certifications. The job search. The wins and the setbacks. All of it.
This blog is where I document the route. Every tool I learn, every vulnerability I analyze, every CTF I work through, every concept that finally clicks — it goes here.
You're not watching someone who already made it. You're watching someone make it in real time.
Welcome to RouteToRoot.
Follow the journey:
GitHub: github.com/RouteToRoot
YouTube: youtube.com/@RouteToRoot_Sec
Portfolio: routetoroot.io
