Call it a second chance at a childhood dream.

Andalusia native Cedric Sinkfield, a father of five and an over-the-road truck driver, decided to pursue his dream of a career in criminal justice last year.

Sinkfield said he’s always dreamed of being in law enforcement, but life deterred those plans for a while. Those dreams were rekindled when he was pulled over for what he considered an unfair stop.

“So that event gave me the power and the will to go back to school and take up criminal justice,” he said. “I want to make a difference.”

Sinkfield said his initial plans were placed on hold when he started a family, who he “wouldn’t trade for nothing in the world,” he said.

Sinkfield, with the help of his wife, who is also in school, went to truck driving school to be able to support his family.

“I thank and love her even more for doing it,” he said. “I first started driving trucks when I finished up from driving school through LBW. I enrolled through a statewide job program that was offered to anyone who wanted a second chance at doing something great with their lives.

Sinkfield said he resigned from truck driving in 2008, and in 2009 began working at a local pizza parlor.

“And right then and there, I knew I had to do something else beside flipping pizzas for the rest of my life,” he said. “And also I let my five young sons see what their father had become – a nothing.”

It wasn’t long before opportunity presented itself.

“One night I was sitting up late, watching TV and just channel surfing, I came across a commercial being aired,” he said. “It was the Everest University commercial where the black guy is telling you that ‘I had nothing else to do but sit around the house doing nothing and just letting life go by.’ “That’s when it hit me – besides my wife taking a kidney shot at me about going to bed and getting some rest – but the fact that they guy on TV was right about me letting life fly right by me and not doing anything about it,” he said.

“Now I can’t say that it has been easy since I have been in school while being on the road,” he said.

“But I have to look at it this way, I’m doing these things to help my family, to better myself so I can be a good role model for my kids. I’m also getting a better understanding of the criminal justice system.”

Sinkfield said his goal is to complete his associate’s degree in criminal justice and perhaps pursue a bachelor’s degree as well.

“So now I’m driving for a company out of Nashville, Tenn., called Western Express, which by the way is an OK trucking company, but anything is better than nothing,” he said. “Right now I’m working on getting a job in law enforcement either with the state or federal government. “